On 3/15/2012 23:17, Michael Torrie wrote:
On 03/15/2012 09:18 AM, Kiuhnm wrote:
----> After early user testing without the colon, it was discovered that
the meaning of the indentation was unclear to beginners being taught the
first steps of programming.<----
The addition of the colon clarified it significantly: the colon somehow
draws attention to what follows and ties the phrases before and after it
together in just the right way."
If that passage is correct, those studies don't say that adding the
colon increases the readability, but that it makes more sense to
beginners who don't even know what indentation is.
Seems to me that helping code to make more sense to a beginner is, by
definition, increasing readability.
Pick up two math books about the same topic but on two different levels
(e.g. under-graduated and graduated). If you compare the proofs you'll
see that those in the higher-level book are almost always sketched. Why
is that? Because they're more readable for a mature reader. But they're
almost incomprehensible to a beginner.
As another example, why do people use jargon? Because that makes
communication more efficient. And yet that frustrate beginners.
So, no, I can't agree with you. There are too many situations where a
steep learning curve pays off in the long run. Making that curve too
shallow may help beginners but damage experienced users.
Is functional programming code more readable than imperative code? Ask a
beginner and you'll receive a resounding "no". Ask an experienced coder
and he will probably say "it depends". If he says "yes, always" he is a
just a lisp fanatic :)
Kiuhnm
--
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
