Roy Smith wrote: > In article <54ba5a25$0$12991$c3e8da3$54964...@news.astraweb.com>, > Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote: > >> Whitespace is significant in nearly all programming languages, and so it >> should be. Whitespace separates tokens, and lines, and is a natural way >> of writing (at least for people using Western languages). > >>>> """x""" == " " "x" " " > False
I'm not sure what you are trying to say there. The left hand side is the string "x", the right hand side is the string " x ". I can tell you why they're different, I just can't tell you the definitive component in the Python interpreter which causes that difference (parser, lexer, keyhole optimizer, compiler...). I suspect the answer is implementation-dependent. """ is not the same as " " ", just as 123 and 1 2 3 are not the same. >> *Indentation* is significant to Python, while most languages enable >> tedious and never-ending style wars over the correct placement of braces >> vis a vis indentation, because their language is too simple-minded to >> infer block structure from indentation. Python does derive block >> structure from indentation, as god intended (otherwise he wouldn't have >> put tab keys on typewriters) and so Python doesn't suffer from the >> interminable arguments about formatting that most other languages do. > > Well, we do get to argue about > > x = [1, > 2, > 3] > > vs. > > x = [1, > 2, > 3, > ] > > vs. a few other variations based on how you group the first element with > the opening bracket, or the last element with the closing bracket, and, > of course, whether you use the last trailing comma or not. True, but nowhere near the Holy Wars about the One True Brace Style in languages like C. -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list