From: Mike Wilson <wmwilson01@...>
Date: 2004-01-09T12:21:50+09:00
Subject: Re: block delimiting


>From: Joe Mason <joe@notcharles.ca>
>In article <Law12-F38fDGCl9FopY000082ac@hotmail.com>, Mike Wilson wrote:
> > def iffunc
> >     something = false
> >     something_else = true
> >
> >     if something == true
> >         puts "in an if"
> >         elsif something_else == true
> >              puts "nope, I'm here"; end
> >
> >     puts "ending iffunc"; end
>
>Oh, god, that's hard to follow!
>
>That means if you forget an end, you get a weird broken block structure
>that could do anything.  The whole point of Python's delimiting is that
>it's not possible to have a mismatch between what the programmer and the
>interpreter think the structure is.
>
>The OP would be better off writing a script to parse his code with
>Python-like indentation rules, and add delimiters when appropriate.
>
>Joe
>

While I agree that it's just plain ugly, and I would never actualy argue 
that anyone should do it,  I

1) had the impression from the OP that the visual significance was what was 
important.

2) believe that "if you forget an end" this way or forget and end otherwise 
it's a problem (although I understand your argument, yet see [1]).

3) don't think that having source that wouldn't possibly compile on another 
system because of a "special" syntax which needs a "special" parser is a 
good idea at all.

4) wonder why I'm even wasting my breath on the subject as there's no good 
answer and frankly, I think Ruby's as close to perfect for me as I'll ever 
find and don't much care if anyone else uses it as long as I can. :O)

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