Sean, > Why has HTML been out for many many years, and yet > programming languages still use plain ASCII text exclusively? > Don't we have similar needs as other electronic document > manipulators?
Mmm ... I don't like that idea too much. And that's for a rather obvious reason actually: writing HTML/XML means *lots of typing*. If I had to choose between a language that relies on identation and one that relies on explicit markup tags, I guess I'd pick the former since a less verbose language allows for higher productivity and more readability. However, IMHO a language that does not rely on any markup (line breaks, indentation) at all is even more preferrable. Regards, Stefan > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sean L. Palmer > Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 9:21 PM > To: Wolfgang Thaller; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Use of tab characters in indentation-sensitive code > > Why has HTML been out for many many years, and yet > programming languages still use plain ASCII text exclusively? > Don't we have similar needs as other electronic document > manipulators? > > Someone should decide on a subset of HTML that is intended > for programming. > Then we could use *actual* indentation instead of tabs or > spaces. It could also unify or abstract away commenting > style, moving it from the domain of the language (lexer) to > the domain of the layout protocol. > > But if I stop the wishful thinking, Wolfgang is right. Tabs > are ok so long as they are used exclusively. In fact, if the > tab size equals the indent size, it makes it quite easy to > *change* the indent size when the source is worked on by > various people with different indent preferences. > > Sean > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wolfgang Thaller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 9:29 AM > Subject: Re: Use of tab characters in indentation-sensitive code > > > > Graham Klyne wrote: > > > > > I think that compilers should issue a warning when > indentation that > > > determines the scope of a construct is found to contain > tab characters. > > > > I'd say, when it "is found to contain a mixture of tab and space > > characters". > > I have successfully written a lot of Haskell code that uses tabs > > *exclusively* - in that case, the meaning of the program *doesn't* > > depend on how the tab characters are interpreted. > > IMHO, there should only be warnings about tabs when their > size makes a > > difference to the meaning of the program, as shown in the examples > > below: > > > > let > > <spaces>x = 1 > > <TAB--->y = 1 -- warning > > > > let > > <TAB--->x = 1 -- OK > > <TAB--->y = 2 -- OK > > <spaces>z = 3 -- warning > > > > a = let x = 1 > > y = 2 -- OK > > in ... > > > > b = let x = 1 > > <TAB--->y = 2 -- warning > > in ... > > > > There are many editors that automatically mix tabs and spaces in > > indentation (and I don't like that - what's it good for?), but some > > people will certainly want to continue to use them, so I'm > not sure if > > adding warnings like these would be acceptable to them. > > > > Cheers, > > > > Wolfgang > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Haskell mailing list > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell > > > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell > _______________________________________________ Haskell mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell
