In <mailman.232.1288020268.2218.python-l...@python.org> Steve Holden <st...@holdenweb.com> writes:
>On 10/25/2010 10:47 AM, rantingrick wrote: >> On Oct 25, 5:07 am, kj <no.em...@please.post> wrote: >>> In "The Zen of Python", one of the "maxims" is "flat is better than >>> nested"? Why? Can anyone give me a concrete example that illustrates >>> this point? >> >> Simple. This commandment (endowed by the anointed one, GvR) is >> directed directly at lisp and those filthy lispers. If you don't know >> what lisp is then Google it. Then try to program with it for one hour. >> Very soon after your head will explode from the nested bracket plague >> and then you shall be enlightened! >> >And everyone taking the Zen too seriously should remember that it was >written by Tim Peters one night during the commercial breaks between >rounds of wrestling on television. So while it can give useful guidance, >it's nether prescriptive nor a bible ... Well, it's pretty *enshrined*, wouldn't you say? After all, it is part of the standard distribution, has an easy-to-remember invocation, etc. *Someone* must have taken it seriously enough to go through all this bother. If it is as trivial as you suggest (and for all I know you're absolutely right), then let's knock it off its pedestal once and for all, and remove it from the standard distribution. ~kj -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list