From: Christopher Dicely <cmdicely@...>
Date: 2011-05-18T15:21:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby Future Or?

On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 4:49 PM, 7stud -- <bbxx789_05ss@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> The other thing is taste: I personally don't like the
>> idea of giving space such a meaning in
>> a programming language. That's one of the reasons,
>> I dislike about Python.
>
> Do you really think all those cascading 'ends' in Ruby (that you can
> never get right nor locate the missing 'end') are better?

I've never had much problem with getting the "ends" right in Ruby, but
I tend to frame blocks before filling them in. But, sure, sometimes I
would rather not have to deal with ending blocks.

In practice, I've found Ruby easier to refactor, incorporate from an
outside source, and work with in general than Python -- though Python
is slightly easier to write in the first place. So, yeah, between
Ruby's explicit delimiters and Python's significant whitespace, I find
Ruby's structure to work better. But its largely a subjective
difference of what works best for different people.

(Oddly, while I haven't done as much with Haskell as with Python, the
significant whitespace in Haskell hasn't bothered me as much as
Python's; I don't know if its that I just haven't done as much with
Haskell or if there is something in the interaction with the rest of
the syntax with the whitespace sensitivity that is less disruptive in
Haskell.)

But all these languages are pleasant to work with, for their various
quirks. I don't know about anyone else who has complained about
Python's whitespace sensitivity, but when I mention my dislike of it,
its not by way of saying Python sucks, just one feature of the
language that occasionally causes frustration that isn't present in
some other languages . Python also has positive features that aren't
mirrored in other languages, including some that are tightly linked to
significant whitespace (not needing to explicitly end blocks is a
convenience.)