[ruby-talk:11877] RE: Option to allow Python style indenting?

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	chris [SMTP:[e-mail]]
> Sent:	Thursday, March 01, 2001 5:10 PM
> To:	[e-mail]; [e-mail]
> Subject:	[ruby-talk:11876] Option to allow Python style indenting?
> 
> Don't know whether this discussion would be better here or on the email
> list.  My searches haven't found a previous discussion on this topic -
> appologies if there was one.
> ---
> I find Ruby to very a very enjoyable language.  My other liking is Python.
> Particularly enjoyable to me is how the Tab style indenting works. I find
> that not needing braces or "end" statements *dramatically* cuts down on
> the
> screen space occupied by code.  Instead of 40 lines with 10 or 15
> braces/"ends", I have 40 lines of full code.  Nice.  It reads easier and
> is
> easier to work with (my opinion.)
> 
> I'm aware that there are many people who don't like the Python style and
> that is OK.  I respect that.  One of the things I have noticed about Ruby
> is
> that it accomodates different styles in a way that doesn't break anything
> and allows people to (within bounds) use what they like.
> 
> My question for all is, why not create an option in Ruby that would allow
> the parser to accept code that used indentation instead of "end"
> statements?
> Would this be really all that hard?  I, myself, couldn't do it, but I get
> the feeling that a relatively simple change to the parser would make it
> possible.
> 
> Specifically, I would envision some code that goes before the current
> parser
> code that simply reads the file and uses the indentation levels to insert
> "end"s where needed.  Then the code would continue on to the normal
> parser.
> All of this would be turned on/off with a switch or setting.  Those who
> don't like it never need to use it.
> 
> How about it?  Does anybody think this is doable and are there others who
> would like to see it?
> 
> chris
> 
	[Bryn Keller]  
	I'd love to see this happen. I don't know if it's feasible, but it
sure would be nice.