Re: Command Languages Versus Programming Languages

On 09/04/2024 09:47, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> writes:

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

There it is again: “maximal space”. The “space” is there to be used.
Code may be one-dimensional, but you have a two-dimensional screen to
display it, why not make use of that, if it makes a complex structure
clearer?

>
Like I said: eye-travel. If the same amount of information is spread
out over a larger space, there comes a point where it's actually *more*
work to read, and it eventually becomes harder for the brain to keep
track of the relevant context as a result; the "flow" is broken.

 Also, the more it’s spread out, the less of it you can get on one
screen, and the resulting need for paging makes the medium-scale
structure a lot less clear.
 

And if you need line continuation characters - ending the line in "\" in this case - it's a sure sign that you are doing something questionable. In some cases it is unavoidable, such as for complex macros in C or for long lists in bash, but it is extremely rare that it is necessary in Python code.
Comments to say when your loop or functions end is another big red flag that the layout is bad.