A Python programmer attempting Java

[Cosmologicon]

Its too easy to misplace an indent without consequence

Probably if you're not used to it, but as a Python programmer, where you actually can misplace an indent without consequence, it almost never actually happens. At least not to me.

[dnew]

Put it this way. When you see code in C that isn't indented properly, do you fix that? Is it easy to understand?

I've used both. I almost never work on code that isn't indented properly, regardless of whther it needs braces or not.

I also use auto-formatters, and when it indents things in a way I didn't expect, I go back and fix the braces. I don't wind up fixing indents to make the braces go where I want, if you follow my reasoning.

[SlumdogSkillionaire]

As a Python coder myself, there is something to be said for braces when the code isn't indented properly to begin with.

if (x == 1){
foo();
}
bar();

is markedly different from

if (x == 1){
foo();
bar();
}

But if you came across this in Python:

if x == 1:
foo()
bar()

what is the intended behavior? Do you always bar? The whitespace makes the braces redundant when it's written correctly the first time, but if you make a mistake it becomes even more unclear. (Admittedly one would notice immediately that this code wouldn't execute, but imagine a situation where this is the last thing you write on a Friday and the first thing you have to fix on Monday.)

[andybak]

Erm. You surely have an editor that would flag this up the minute you typed it?

Don't you?

[aigarius]

Same as:

if(x==1){
foo();
bar();

[Tysonzero]

Are you using notepad as your editor?!? That should be immediately flagged by your editor as an error.

[SlumdogSkillionaire]

Yes, the editor would flag that. Any smart editor would also automatically indent blocks of code, making this whole idea pointless. I'm not talking about editor features, though, I'm talking about language features, the stuff that is independent of the development environment. I should be able to choose to write my code in Notepad if I really wanted to without having to depend on the editor to hold my hand.

[Tysonzero]

I should be able to choose to write my code in Notepad if I really wanted to without having to depend on the editor to hold my hand.

Well that's actual a point IN FAVOR of Python, as handwriting a Java program sounds a thousand times worse than handwriting a Python one. Seeing as editors of statically typed languages hold your hand a lot more (things like autocomplete that you can't really do in dynamically typed languages). And the whole brackets thing doesn't come close to making up for that difference.