http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=451352


in reply to The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part V): Poetry

Did anyone else look at this quote from Larry:

Look at the use of parentheses in Lisp or the use of white space as syntax in Python. Or the mandatory use of objects in many languages, including Java. All of these are ways of taking freedom away from the end user 'for their own good'. They're just versions of Orwell's Newspeak, in which it's impossible to think bad thoughts.
and think, "Isn't whitespace part of syntax in perl 6?"

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Re^2: The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part V)
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Apr 26, 2005 at 15:42 UTC
    Not in the same way as Python. It's natural enough for whitespace to be required between certain tokens, or even all tokens. The requirements of presence or absence of whitespace isn't what Larry was addressing.

    A space or tab in Python isn't just separating active tokens, it is an active token. Python actually uses the amount of whitespace between visible tokens to change the order of execution.



    Christopher E. Stith
Re^2: The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part V)
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 26, 2005 at 03:15 UTC
    Worse! Perl6 also has parentheses!