this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Not the previous commenter, but using indentation as syntax rather than an aid to understanding tge program structure is just painful when you come from any more conventionally structured language. The meme above may be an exaggeration, but it's not much of one. An IDE can probably help, but needing one just to be able to more easily read the code is excessive.
That said, it's a popular language and there are plenty of useful libraries, so sometimes the trade off is worth it.
I’ve programmed Python mostly without IDE without any problem. It’s no more difficult to understand the structure of the program than a bracketed language.
Don't get me wrong, I know it's quite possible, I find it just grates when you're used to braces and semi-colons. They're sort of a standard across many languages, and is an extra mental gearshift to python syntax.
To each their own. If I'm going to bother intending all of my code may as well benefit from it. I don't actually use Python that much and don't love it but I am a fan of significant indentation. But most honestly it isn't a big deal either way. While I would be happier if my preferred language had significant indentation it is very unlikely to be something that convinces me to use a language or not.
Coming from C++ and Java over to Python was challenging. The IDE I used at the time also did not like when I used tabs instead of spaces, which drove me up a wall.
I will say that for beginners where python is their first language, it does a good job at reinforcing good practices for writing legible code.
I even coded my first few python programs in nano text editor without any annoying indentation issues. I use TABs btw. Problems usually happen when people mix tabs with spaces
Ah, now we stray into 'holy war' teritory. I'd agree with you should use tabs, but the language style guide says 4 spaces per level. As you saym don't try to mix them.
Most projects nowadays use auto formatting tools for convenience. Any python auto formatting tool will automatically convert tabs to spaces. Tabs are a no no in python, as their rendering might depend on the settings of the IDE. Spaces are nice and constant.