> For us programmers with fancy emacs' modes the INDENT/DEDENT system is
> fine. But for end-users, who may not be professional programmers
> and who may be entering text in a primitive text entry widget, having
> to get all their text to align properly will get stale fast.
>
> As I mentioned last time, when I show people Python they almost
> immediately complain about using indentation for nesting. I can only
> think of one or two people who didn't object to it. They may get to
> like it in time, but such a uniformly negative reaction may keep
> potential users from trying the language at all, slowing down its rate
> of acceptance.
When I first looked at Python I had been using PASCAL and C for MANY
years.. I had also used BASIC, ASM (a number of different systems),
and looked at Lisp.. The thing that really grabbed my interest is
the way Python uses indention... I really liked it.. It is clean and
easy to use.. It also forces style on a user and most (including me
at the time) programmers NEED to be more consistant in style..
I started coding Python programs using VI and that was not that hard..
I just use consistant indention levels (4 spaces each)... Now that I
use Emacs with the python-mode editing, it makes it even easier..
I hated BEGIN-END in PASCAL and the {'s }'s in C are easy to use, but
also confusing, ugly, and sometimes OPTIONAL.. YUCK!
Python is clean and easy to read and now I find myself coding
in Python standards when I code C.. (have to keep telling myself
to put those damn {}'s in...)
Oh BTW: Printouts (on paper) of Python programs are much cleaner to
read for myself than C ever was.. just more structure to it.. :)
--Lance Ellinghouse lance@markv.com UNIX Systems Support support@markv.com Mark V Systems Limited Voice: +1 818 995 7671 FAX: +1 818 995 4267