Re: [OT]Python/zsh/perl [was: named directory expansion on strings]

[Eric Mangold <eric@oaktech.net>]

On Sun, 14 Mar 2004 23:04:00 -0800 (PST), Bob Schmertz 
<rschmertz@yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- Vincent Stemen <zsh@hightek.org> wrote:
> [quoted text "juggled around" a bit]
>
>> I agree.  This surprising discovery is the primary reason I never put
>> any serious consideration into learning Python.
>
>> I use the auto indentation features of xemacs all the time.  I see no
>> way you could do that without code block delimiters.  Seems like a step
>> backward in time.
>
> Emacs seems to be the most popular editor for Python programmers.  It
> knows when to start a new indent level, because the if, while, class,
> etc. lines all end with a colon.  It can't tell when you want to close
> the
> block, of course, but if you're typing new code, that's a simple matter
> of
> hitting the backspace key once for every block you want to close out.  I
> wouldn't /think/ of coding in Python if I didn't have Emacs or something
> equally smart.
>
>> Seems like it would be a nightmare to fix if you get your indentation
>> messed up (which is extremely common when juggling code around).
>
> Not sure exactly what you mean by "juggling around"; if you mean cutting
> a
> section from a file and moving it elsewhere in the file, or to a
> different
> file, at a point that starts out at a different indent level, there's a
> key sequence to add or subtract an indent level from that entire block of
> code, so that the pasted code will be consisent with itself as well as
> fitting all under the appropriate if statement or whatever.  If you're
> talking about code from someone else, esp. via email and things like
> that,
> then there are more variables, of course.
>
> Do I think blocking by indentation is the greatest thing since sliced
> bread?  No.  But I've been surprised to find that it has rarely, if ever,
> been a problem for me

Yeah. It's a complete non-issue. There are much better things to fault 
python for. (not that having faults makes it a bad choice for various 
things)