I'm not saying there are NO features of python that are cool... I like
their list comprehensions

but, I do dislike the whitespace formatting extremely.

so, the list comprehensions are like

[ item*2 for item in items ]

which is the same as:  items.collect { |item| item*2 }

I think their version is more readable...

but beyond that, they have a cool conditional clause for the comprehensions...

[ item*2 for item in items if item > 2 ]

... which lets you run a conditional filter, and then a procedure on
the elements that passed.

which would be the same as: 

temp = items.select { |item| item > 2 }
temp.collect { |item| item*2 }

I mean, the python versions are way more readable in these cases. 
those would be a nice little bit of syntax to pick up.

So, I'm not saying there aren't some cool features ... I think we
should have tuples too ( frozen lists that are optimized for speed
since they are immutable )

Anyways, that's all I've got for now.  Not trying to be bigotted, but
I think Ruby's syntax is just fine as it is ( as far as indentation
vs. end. )

Hope that makes sense.

j.


On 8/3/05, Austin Ziegler <halostatue / gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/3/05, Daniel Brockman <daniel / brockman.se> wrote:
> > Jeff Wood <jeff.darklight / gmail.com> writes:
> >> If you want python syntax, use python
> > Yeah, and if you want regular expressions, use Perl. Last time I
> > checked, Guido did not have any patents on layout-based syntax.
> >
> > I'm sorry, but I'm so tired of the categorical ``if you want
> > feature X, use language Y'' arguments.
> >
> > Ruby has stolen tons of ideas from all over the place, and that
> > has served us well. Why stop now?
> 
> No one is suggesting to stop now. Layout-based syntax, however, is a
> stupid idea that should have died with punch cards.
> 
> Yes, I hate Python's syntactically significant whitespace. There's
> other things (maybe) that Ruby can learn from Python, but this isn't
> one of them.
> 
> In general, I agree with you -- we shouldn't by and large say "if
> you want X, use Y". But we should also discourage the importation of
> the worst features of other languages.
> 
> -austin
> --
> Austin Ziegler * halostatue / gmail.com
>               * Alternate: austin / halostatue.ca
> 
> 


-- 
"So long, and thanks for all the fish"

Jeff Wood