Re^6: I want you to convince me to learn Perl

Gosh, chill... didn’t mean to direct it at you in particular, but there’s simply been plenty of times I’ve heard it and I felt I’d say something about it.

I’m almost exclusively a Perl user, but I’ve spent a few years doing KDE3 stuff in Python, and I guess I just feel weird when people find the white-space thing odd while it felt pretty much natural for me simply because it’s merely about making proper indentation a rule. (Heh, now that I think of it, that even fits in the Zen of Python, “there should be one — and preferably only one — obvious way to do it”)

Comment on Re^6: I want you to convince me to learn Perl

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Re^7: I want you to convince me to learn Perl by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Sep 25, 2013 at 20:23 UTC
it’s merely about making proper indentation a rule. Proper indentation is a visual thing. A tab on one line, an errant space preceding a tab on the next; four spaces on the next; doesn't matter, everything lines up. 'cepting for one language. Sure, its easy to be consistent when you first type code -- I have my editor set to convert tabs to 4 spaces on input for pretty much every programming language I use. But its when you pick up a piece of someone else's code who used a different convention; or you cut and paste between files; or grab a snippet off the 'net; or just move a bit of code from one level to another... The only reliable method is to squelch every line and re-indent. Life's too damn short for such pointless, affected, self-inflicted make-work. And maybe the reason you hear it so often, is cos its true. With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]
Re^8: I want you to convince me to learn Perl by CountZero (Bishop) on Nov 24, 2013 at 17:08 UTC
You can always write a short one-liner in Perl to replace all tabs to spaces ... ;) CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James My blog: Imperial Deltronics	[reply]


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