I'm not saying there are NO features of python that are cool... I like
their list comprehensions
but, I do dislike the whitespace formatting extremely.
so, the list comprehensions are like
[ item*2 for item in items ]
which is the same as: items.collect { |item| item*2 }
I think their version is more readable...
but beyond that, they have a cool conditional clause for the comprehensions...
[ item*2 for item in items if item > 2 ]
... which lets you run a conditional filter, and then a procedure on
the elements that passed.
which would be the same as:
temp = items.select { |item| item > 2 }
temp.collect { |item| item*2 }
I mean, the python versions are way more readable in these cases.
those would be a nice little bit of syntax to pick up.
So, I'm not saying there aren't some cool features ... I think we
should have tuples too ( frozen lists that are optimized for speed
since they are immutable )
Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Not trying to be bigotted, but
I think Ruby's syntax is just fine as it is ( as far as indentation
vs. end. )
Hope that makes sense.
j.
···
On 8/3/05, Austin Ziegler <halostatue@gmail.com> wrote:
On 8/3/05, Daniel Brockman <daniel@brockman.se> wrote:
> Jeff Wood <jeff.darklight@gmail.com> writes:
>> If you want python syntax, use python
> Yeah, and if you want regular expressions, use Perl. Last time I
> checked, Guido did not have any patents on layout-based syntax.
>
> I'm sorry, but I'm so tired of the categorical ``if you want
> feature X, use language Y'' arguments.
>
> Ruby has stolen tons of ideas from all over the place, and that
> has served us well. Why stop now?
No one is suggesting to stop now. Layout-based syntax, however, is a
stupid idea that should have died with punch cards.
Yes, I hate Python's syntactically significant whitespace. There's
other things (maybe) that Ruby can learn from Python, but this isn't
one of them.
In general, I agree with you -- we shouldn't by and large say "if
you want X, use Y". But we should also discourage the importation of
the worst features of other languages.
-austin
--
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
* Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca
--
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"
Jeff Wood