Re: The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part V)

[Tanktalus]

Did anyone else look at this quote from Larry:

Look at the use of parentheses in Lisp or the use of white space as syntax in Python. Or the mandatory use of objects in many languages, including Java. All of these are ways of taking freedom away from the end user 'for their own good'. They're just versions of Orwell's Newspeak, in which it's impossible to think bad thoughts.

and think, "Isn't whitespace part of syntax in perl 6?"

[mr_mischief]

Not in the same way as Python. It's natural enough for whitespace to be required between certain tokens, or even all tokens. The requirements of presence or absence of whitespace isn't what Larry was addressing.

A space or tab in Python isn't just separating active tokens, it is an active token. Python actually uses the amount of whitespace between visible tokens to change the order of execution.

[Anonymous Monk]

Worse! Perl6 also has parentheses!