Just want to note that in Haskell, whitespace syntax _is_ syntactic sugar for brackets etc. I don't recall that being the case for python. Interesting tidbit, some of the big names in the Haskell community have very idiosyncratic coding styles that use the bracket look.
Right—that was a source of inspiration for this aspect of my language. The original stated motivation in Haskell’s case was to make it easier to generate Haskell source code without needing to worry about indentation, but I wondered if it could also be helpful for accessibility. (Sadly there’s no way to turn off layout-based syntax in Haskell, and not much interest in such an option last I asked on /r/haskell.)
Explicit delimiters also have an advantage for keyboard navigation, enabling some degree of structural (by-block) movement. I prefer not to use a mouse/trackpad if possible—my main editor is Emacs in a terminal—and I know some people who have trouble using pointing devices or just don’t like switching between keyboard & pointer.
Simon Peyton-Jones is (was?) known for writing blocks in “aligned” instead of “hanging” style, with separators in prefix:
someFunction =
do { foo
; mx <- bar
; y <- case mx of { Just x -> do { baz
; pure (quux x)
}
; Nothing -> do { fnord
; blurch
}
}
; xyzz y
}
I find it nice enough to read, particularly because it leads to rapidly increasing indentation and consequently discourages deeply nested code, but it’s a bit of a pain to edit & diff. I would write the above like this:
someFunction = do
foo
mx <- bar
y <- case mx of
Just x -> do
baz
pure (quux x)
Nothing -> do
fnord
blurch
xyzz y
This prefix delimiter style is actually fairly standard in Haskell not for “do” notation, but for records and lists, since Haskell doesn’t allow a final trailing comma in these structures:
list :: [Text]
list =
[ "this"
, "that"
, "the other thing"
]
data Numbers = Numbers
{ numI :: Int
, numF :: Double
, numS :: Text
}
record = Numbers
{ numI = 1
, numF = 1.0
, numS = "one"
}
The recent popular ones (edit: assuming I am reading correctly which games you refer to) are all pretty much spinoff genres that borrow heavily from traditional roguelikes, but break from the classic design attributes in very important ways. Many of them are excellent games, but I don't think it's being nitpicky to distinguish them. Note I make this objection without wanting to wade into the tedious war over terminology.
If you are a video game enthusiast, particularly of a niche genre, /vg/ can be a good place. I'm really into roguelikes, so I visit the '/rlg/' thread around once a week to see what's going on and potentially get some advice if I'm at a tricky part in a run or need to make a decision about where to take my character.
Standard disclaimer applies about 4chan. If you're thin-skinned, you may find it not worth the trouble. Just don't engage with the trolls and you'll be fine.
/tg/ is truly excellent for non-video game discussion (board games, card games, w40k, MtG, etc). They are a bit opinionated much like /vg/ and I'd agree, thin skinned people will be happiest if they stay away. For example there is little love for Paizo/Pathfinder on /tg/ (although there are some fans...)
I was one of the people who didn't want to learn SQL/database stuff. What do you know, after a few years in the industry my interests lay heavily in serverside. I'd kick the old me if I could.
Might as well kick the old you, it's just as likely to have an affect as kicking that young kid next to you, 'cuz she ain't gonna listen, either.
I don't know, that attitude always struck me as an equivalent to a mechanic that refuses to learn how an internal combustion engine works. Yeah, sure, you could probably get away with being an suspension/alignment specialist. But everything you work on has one of those engine thingies, why not expand those horizons and learn how they work? Know a little C, know how to create a SELECT beyond "* FROM myTable", know the basics of getting a web server up, running and serving simple pages; we need a programmer's equivalent to Heinlein's list of things every man should know.
