> Every language with blocks needs some mechanism to indicate the beginning and
>ending of blocks and of statements within blocks. If visible fences
>('begin/end' or '{}') and statement terminators (';') are used, then '\n' can
>be treated as merely a space, as it is in C, for instance.
> and it uses unescaped '\n' (with two escapement options) to terminate
>statements. This is fundamental to Python's design and goes along with
>significant indents.
Agreed. Currently indentation in Python starts a new block, but if you view it
from the perspective of line breaking, it also functions as if the line is
continued. The line of code below
if condition: do_a(); do_b()
can be written as:
if condition: #line breaks
do_a(); # ';' is optional here
do_b() # continue
That indentation can be also employed for line breaking is quite evident to me.
During the open email correspondence with Stephen, it seems to be a tenable
point.
> There would then be three ways to escape newline, with one doing double duty.
>And for what? Merely to avoid using either of the two methods already
>available.
I believe the other two ways are not as good as this new way. As the proposal
is fully backward compatible, people may choose whatever way they prefer.
>________________________________
>From: Terry Reedy <tjre...@udel.edu>
>To: python-list@python.org
>Cc: python-id...@python.org
>Sent: Sunday, September 4, 2011 3:01 AM
>Subject: Re: [Python-ideas] allow line break at operators
>
>On 9/3/2011 3:51 AM, Yingjie Lan wrote:
>> I agree that long lines of code are not very common in many projects,
>> though it might be the case with some heavily involved in math. For some
>> reason, when the feature of free line breaking came about in computer
>> languages, it is welcomed and generally well accepted.
>
>Every language with blocks needs some mechanism to indicate the beginning and
>ending of blocks and of statements within blocks. If visible fences
>('begin/end' or '{}') and statement terminators (';') are used, then '\n' can
>be treated as merely a space, as it is in C, for instance.
>
>> Python uses indentation for blocks,
>
>and it uses unescaped '\n' (with two escapement options) to terminate
>statements. This is fundamental to Python's design and goes along with
>significant indents.
>
>> and by the same mechanism, line breaking can be
>> accommodated without requiring parenthesis or ending backslashes.
>
>You need proof for your claim that indentation can be used for both jobs in
>the form of a grammar that works with Python's parser. I am dubious that you
>can do that with an indents *after* the newline.
>
>Even if you could, it would be confusing for human readers. There would then
>be three ways to escape newline, with one doing double duty. And for what?
>Merely to avoid using either of the two methods already available.
>
>-- Terry Jan Reedy
>
>-- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
>
>--
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