transputers again was: The dissolution of Commodore 2948

David Dyer-Bennet

In practice, it's not the issue you make it out to be. I use Python a lot and indentation problems rarely come up. Usually when copying code from Google where layout isn't always preserved.

And I've done the bulk of my Python code in Windows Notepad (is there a lesser editor?) where I typically use the tab key. But I have the Python editor set to indent 4 spaces. Switching back and forth from spaces to tabs isn't even a problem since the Python editor has Untabify-Tabify functions available to do that for you.

My point is that if the enforced indentation style does not interfere with your programming, then it is NOT a language flaw.

I would never say that c is flawed because it permits code like this:

if( !flag1 ) { the X is %Zu-n", Head.element, Head.step, X ); mpzset( (attractors + a copy of the X that the attractor first occured. length of sequence even and odd values attractorcount++; break;attractor found.

}

And the reason I don't consider it a flaw is because in my opinion, which is the only one that counts, the purpose of flexibility is to create rigidity. In other words, it's a means to an end, not an end unto itself.

When I see crap like this:

char *skipspace GMPPROTO ((char *)); void makeexp GMPPROTO ((exprt *, enum opt, exprt, exprt)); void freeexpr GMPPROTO ((exprt)); char *expr GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); char *term GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); char *power GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); char *factor GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); int match GMPPROTO ((char *, char *)); int matchp GMPPROTO ((char *, char *)); int cputime GMPPROTO ((void));

I don't fault the language for allowing it, I fault the author for not exploiting the "flaw" to make it look like this:

char *skipspace GMPPROTO ((char *)); void makeexp GMPPROTO ((exprt *, enum opt, exprt, exprt)); void freeexpr GMPPROTO ((exprt)); char *expr GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); char *term GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); char *power GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); char *factor GMPPROTO ((char *, exprt *)); int match GMPPROTO ((char *, char *)); int matchp GMPPROTO ((char *, char *)); int cputime GMPPROTO ((void));

Well, when the language in question enforces a style, then they're hard to seperate.