From: David Masover <ninja@...>
Date: 2009-12-15T05:21:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Poll: Significant Indentation

On Monday 14 December 2009 04:12:42 am Brian Candler wrote:
> > If Ruby had optional significant whitespace as a core language feature
> > (maybe
> > like http://gist.github.com/117694), would you use it
> 
> Never in a million years. If I wanted that, I'd be using python.

This is interesting, and came up a lot in the previous discussion -- mostly in 
the form of, "If you like significant indentation so much, why don't you just 
use Python?"

I do want that, but I don't want Python. Just about everything else that makes 
Ruby different than Python makes me want to use Ruby. There are only two 
things I would want from Python:

 - Execution speed
 - Significant indentation.

If I can't have those in Ruby, fine, there are still many reasons I'll use 
Ruby instead. And people are working on execution speed.

> > If your favorite template language is Haml, would you prefer Erector if
> > Ruby
> > had significant whitespace?
> > (yes/no/NA)
> 
> NA, since I wouldn't be using ruby.

I think that's a no.

And again, _optional_ significant whitespace. Would you stop using Ruby if it 
became an option?

> I agree it does seem paradoxical that one can like indentation for HTML
> but dislike it for programming. For me the following are important:
> 
> - HTML has the need for balancing end tags, and the annoying </...>
> syntax. With Ruby it's just three characters, 'end'

Same with Erector, though. This is actually one of the few reasons I prefer 
Haml to Erector, and there are many things I want from Erector.