From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2009-02-19T05:08:35+09:00
Subject: Re: What are your favorite Ruby features?

Hi --

On Thu, 19 Feb 2009, James Britt wrote:

> Florian Gilcher wrote:
>> 
>> On Feb 17, 2009, at 9:30 PM, James Britt wrote:
>> 
>>> David Masover wrote:
>>> Same here.  I think of them as FGPs: Feel-good parentheses, used because 
>>> they make people accustomed to C or Java feel more comfortable, though 
>>> they do not contribute any real code value.
>> 
>> 
>> Thats a harsh statement for those that do actually like parantheses and not 
>> because they are C//Java-Guys.
>
> It's simply an observation based on reasons people have given me when  I try 
> to understand what value the parens offer.  It ends up being, "I'm used to 
> them", or, "It looks weird without them", or, "I find it more readable."
>
> Basically, their absence makes some people uneasy; they feel better with them 
> there, though they do not provide any information or programmatic value.
>
> I'm sure there are people who did not come to Ruby after using Java or C and 
> still think the parens make the code easier to work with.  I just haven't met 
> them. :)

I did learn C before Ruby, but post hoc ergo propter hoc is still a
logical fallacy :-)

I write what I think is clearest, which as we know means that some
people will also find it clearest and others won't. I don't have any
emotions or convictions one way or another about the characters '('
and ')' themselves.

I understand why you think it's sort of mushy and non-rigorous to use
discretionary parentheses, and it probably is, but I can't seem to
convince myself to stop being guided by criteria of (what I judge to
be) clarity. I'm just an old softy :-)


David

-- 
David A. Black / Ruby Power and Light, LLC
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