From: Jesse Tov <tov@...>
Date: 2003-12-11T19:02:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Underpinnings of Method Wrapping

T. Onoma <transami@runbox.com>:
> On Thursday 11 December 2003 04:04 am, Peter wrote:
>> Ever programmed Haskell? There indentation is significant, and that kinda
>> sucks. And you can get it right when writing the first version of the
>> code, if you use no tabs, but changing code possibly changes indentation
>> and then you get a preview of hell.
> 
> ``scratch scratch scratch``. Okay, that eliminates Haskell from the list :) 

That's not really fair, Peter.  It's not _required_ to use layout in
Haskell, since indentation is just sugar for the brace-and-semicolon
syntax. For example, instead of

    let f x = x + 3
        g x = x * 4
    in f . g                  -- . is function composition

you can write

   let { f x = x + 3; g x = x * 4 } in f . g

Then you're free to rearrange the whitespace however you want.  However,
people usually use layout because it reads very nicely, and it's not
hard as Peter makes it sound.  There are enough other interesting things
in Haskell to make it worthwhile to learn, and some people really like
the syntax.  Haskell and Ruby are very different languages, but they both
seem designed with thought to elegance and best practices.

Just the same, I would not like to see layout in Ruby.

Jesse