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On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Abigail wrote:
> When it comes to hating significant whitespace, nothing comes close to Perl6:
>
> sub square {my $x = shift; return $x * $x}
> print square(1) * 2 # Prints 2.
> print square (1) * 2 # Prints 4.
>
>
> my %hash; # Empty hash.
> if %hash{1} {print "Found it"} # No output.
> if %hash {1} {print "Found it"} # Prints 'Found it'.
I'm not sure who wins, this crap from perl, or the fact that a trailing
comma affects how 'print' functions in python:
print "this is a test"
print "another test"
print "a third test", # notice the trailing comma
print "a fourth test"'
Yields:
this is a test
another test
a third test a fourth test
Yes, a trailing comma determines whether 'print' adds a carriage return for
you. I can't even imagine how painfully difficult it must have been to
write a parser that can somehow tell functions whether they were called with
a trailing comma, considering that a comma (at least in this context) is
usually entirely for the parser -- they wouldn't even be there if the parser
didn't need them, and they're only used by the parser.
I'm not saying I don't understand _why_ you'd want two forms of the 'print'
function, I'm just saying this way makes my eyes bleed, and does a great job
of summing up why I do not now and never will use python except under
duress.
> I rather take all Pythons significant whitespace rules (which aren't
> that bad, and wouldn't require me to change my coding style) repeatedly
> than Perl6 whitespace rules (which conflict with almost every line I
> write) once.
Yeah, it's not python's whitespace that makes me avoid it like the plague.
"Ooh, we're OO, except that we're functional, except, when we just make
shit up, except... at least we're not perl!"
I sweat, I've found someone able to describe what they _liked_ about python
without comparing it to perl. It makes python-ruby script wars difficult:
me: ruby is awesome
them: perl sucks!
me: Bartender! Check, please!
> Evil rules. Pure evil. Hates doesn't come close to describe it.
>
>
> Abigail (not touching Perl6 with a 10-feet pole).
I am looking forward to perl 6 like some people look forward to new episodes
of 'Cops'. If Ruby looks good now, just imagine how good it will look when
Perl 6 comes out. "See, we've added new punctuation, to help solve the fact
that there was too much punctuation, and in order to make it easier to
understand, we've tripled the number of valid statement types." Like a 100
car pileup on an 8-lane highway.
I just hope Ruby is ready to accept all of the refugees. :)
--
It has recently been discovered that research causes cancer in
labratory rats.
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Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://config-mgmt.blogspot.com
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