From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2006-02-03T19:03:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Indentation vs. "end"s

Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In message "Re: Indentation vs. "end"s"
>     on Thu, 2 Feb 2006 06:37:02 +0900, "Rubyist"
> <nuby.ruby.programmer@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> What do you think about those "end"s? Do you *REALLY* like them?
>> Will Ruby-2 offer an alternative? Well, maybe not "indentation" but
>> will another solution be available?
>
> We are experimenting double semicolons as well as "end"s, so that you
> can type
>
>   class Foo
>     def bar(a)
>       p a
>     ;;
>   ;;
>
> instead of
>
>   class Foo
>     def bar(a)
>       p a
>     end
>   end
>
> Or you can even type
>
>   class Foo
>     def bar(a)
>       p a;;;;
>
> But I'm still not sure if it's good enough to be remained in 2.0.
> No, don't worry, we are NOT going to remove "end"s from the language;
> double semicolons are just alternative.

I opt against.  Reasons:

 - difficult to read especially with multiple "end"'s (as others have
pointed out already)

 - I doesn't feel right (aesthetically) to end something started with a
word ("def", "begin" or "do") with punctuation

 - It could break existing code in very rare circumstances, i.e. if
someone used ;;;;;;;;;;;;;; as a visual boundary.

Kind regards

    robert