Py3K idea: why not drop the colon?

[Antoon Pardon]

On 2006-11-13, Steve Holden <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote:
> John Salerno wrote:
>> Fredrik Lundh wrote:
>>> John Salerno wrote:
>>>
>>>>> Anyway, the FAQ answer seems to be a weak argument to me.
>>>> I agree. I was expecting something more technical to justify the 
>>>> colon, not just that it looks better.
>>> yeah, the whole idea of treating programming languages as an interface 
>>> between people and computers is really lame.  no wonder nobody's using 
>>> Python for anything.
>>>
>>> </F>
>>>
>> 
>> personally, i don't mind the colon and see no need to lose it, but if we 
>> are talking in the realm of aesthetics, it actually seems like it would 
>> be cleaner if it weren't there...sure, at first everyone who is used to 
>> it might feel like something is missing, or the line is "hanging" open, 
>> but overall the less characters, the better, right? isn't that why the 
>> braces are gone?
>
> No. The braces are gone because they don't assist a reader's 
> determination of block structure like indentation does.

IMO this works both ways.

> Otherwise why 
> would people write indenting pretty printers for C and the like?

Try to follow an indentation marked structure when the structure
crosses a page boundary and you can't view the whole structure
at once. Sensible placed markers can greatly assist in getting
a feel for a structure even if the structure is already properly
indented.

-- 
Antoon Pardon