From: Jason Creighton <androflux@...>
Date: 2003-08-02T13:56:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby could be wildly more popular if it had ...

On 29 Jul 2003 10:22:38 -0700
quixoticsycophant@yahoo.com (Jeff Mitchell) wrote:

> Then screw popularity.  We don't need whimsy programmers who are
> attracted to the simulated familiarity which brackets give.  Such
> shallow programmers we can do without, thank you.
> 
> Then you shall continue basking in the lonely sunshine of relative
> obscurity, secure in your knowledge of what programmers should be
> like.  Good luck with all of that.

Okay, I will.

> Exhibit A.
> ----------
> Ruby as it exists presently.

<snip>

> "Oh great another language trying to be different."
> 
> "Pascal sucks.  I hate the 'end' keyword."
> 
> "My editor isn't set up to handle this language.  I don't understand
> why they can't just use brackets."
> 
> "A garbled mess, looks like.  It's confusing without brackets to guide
> my eye."

"If you find this hard to read, maybe you should use a higher
indentation level"

> Exhibit B.
> ----------

<sniped evil bracket example>

> "Wow cool language.  I see what's going on immediately."
> 
> "I like how it's familiar.  My eye is trained to follow brackets, so I
> can size up this code with one glance."
> 
> "Hey this looks just like Java!  I know Java!  I can't wait to start
> using ruby as my no-separate-compile-step language!"
> 
> "Dude this is gonna kick perl's ass."

"Wow, this language's syntax is incredibly brain-damaged!"

Seriously, the brackets _do_ make it a _little_ easier to read. But, what if
you had formatted it like so:

class IO
  expect(pat,timeout=9999999)
    buf = ''
    case pat
      when String
        e_pat = Regexp.new(Regexp.quote(pat))
      when Regexp
        e_pat = pat
    end

    while true
      if IO.select([self],nil,nil,timeout).nil?
        result = nil
        break
      end

      c = getc.chr
      buf << c

      if $expect_verbose
        STDOUT.print c
        STDOUT.flush
      end

      if mat=e_pat.match(buf)
        result = [buf,*mat.to_a[1..-1]]
        break
      end
    end

    if iterator?
      yield result
    else
      return result
    end

    nil
  end
end

Or what if you used a higher level of indentation?

class IO
    def expect(pat,timeout=9999999)
	buf = ''
	case pat
	when String
	    e_pat = Regexp.new(Regexp.quote(pat))
	when Regexp
	    e_pat = pat
	end
	while true
	    if IO.select([self],nil,nil,timeout).nil? then
		result = nil
		break
	    end
	    c = getc.chr
	    buf << c
	    if $expect_verbose
		STDOUT.print c
		STDOUT.flush
	    end
	    if mat=e_pat.match(buf) then
		result = [buf,*mat.to_a[1..-1]]
		break
	    end
	end
	if iterator? then
	    yield result
	else
	    return result
	end
	nil
    end
end

Both options, are, I think, better than adding "brackets". And both can
be done without hacking the interpreter.

> I am being more serious than it may or may not appear.  I think ruby
> missed out on a big chance here.  It is absurd, but it's true.

I disagree. (The part about it being true, not the part about it being
absurd. :-) )

Jason Creighton