Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
I was brought up on C, did a module of Java at uni, and am doing an algorithms course which is python heavy.
My other half - who's quite handy with Python - looks in sheer horror at my code which is littered with semicolons.
I was stumped for half an hour figuring out why the Python interpreter was bouncing an error before it had even reached the main program logic... turns out a { before the block of code royally ruins the interpreter's day.
Still, I live and learn.
import " " as ;
I;don't;think;that;helps
For bonus points take their code and completely go wild with utterly random indentation and line breaks, just to drive the point home. 😈
Pfff just randomly replace tabs with 4 spaces and see the world burn
4 spaces is the preferred pythons is happy with either but the standard is 4 spaces. Vscodium ensures that.
Your editor is happy with either, but is it happy with both?
My editor will take either and convert it to 4 spaces. Python can use spaces or tabs but not both in the same file.
Buahahahah I know what to do next commit
That's actually me removing semicolons from Python.
How does one manually add a semicolon? vs. automatically?
JS formatters add them if the project requires it
Manually would be if it prompted you every time you every time the program inserts one. No, wait...
~~Python~~Amateur programmers
This is why linting and auto-format on save exists in IDEs. Don't make things harder on yourself.
I have a plugin in VSCode to remind me not to forget the semicolons
I was taught python by my school but I would rather write in other languages but the difference in formatting still gets me after years
can I interest you in some delicious linters
Folks acting like Python is the only language without semicolons. 😏
I got tripped up so many time in the last 3 weeks using PHP after years in ML family languages. I am already newlining & it’d be poor style to put more than one statement on a line so what is the point of these semicolons?
In some languages
a newline does not
necessarily indicate
the end of a statement.
In others, sometimes it could, but would leave things ambiguous
as to whether the statement was ended or not.
And so, punctuation is necessary.
But newlines + indentation are supported by a lot of languages & when it is, it’s easier to read since the prevailing convention is already to newline, then in indent. When you follow the usual coding styles or autoformatted & removed the semicolons, you’ve gained nothing for readability & added noise. I much prefer the languages that take this convention & bake it in so you don’t have to have that that visual noise—and in these languages, I never felt the parsing rules were ambiguous.
it’d be poor style to put more than one statement on a line
Unlike Python, most languages do not endorse a specific concept of style. You're free to dabble in all the bad style choices you like, on the off chance that once in a blue moon they prove to be situationally useful.
Why haven't custom parsers become more of a thing? All the compiler or interpreter really needs is a valid parse tree. You could even have some kind of special command or directive to switch styles, if a section would be really ugly otherwise.
With indentation-based languages the bad coding style we are talking about is putting multiple statements on a line or unindenting a block …& never has that been something I wanted to do. I would rather this aspect be enforced at the language for readability where there is still room in all other aspects to try out other styles.