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From: Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au>
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Subject: Re: Why did Quora choose Python for its development?
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Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> writes:

> Also, the purpose of source code is to transmit information (to both
> the compiler and to human readers).

And the relative importance of readability for those two purposes is
often misunderstood.

Composing source code so that the *machine* will understand it is one
thing, and can be unambiguously verified.

Composing the same source code so that its meaning will be clearly
transmitted to *other humans* is quite another matter: certainly more
difficult, and arguably far more important:

    “Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally
    for machines to execute.”

    —Abelson & Sussman, _Structure and Interpretation of Computer
    Programs_

> Sometimes, the real enjoyment (in literature) comes in figuring out
> what the author really meant.

Right. Unlike that kind of writing, in functional code like a computer
program, ambiguity of meaning is a curse.

Programmers, if you feel the urge to be subtle and clever and nuanced,
take up poetry or literature as a separate pursuit. In your program
source code, please be as straightforward and unambiguous and
predictable as possible.

-- 
 \      “Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not |
  `\     happen at all. The conscientious historian will correct these |
_o__)                          defects.” —Mark Twain, _A Horse's Tale_ |
Ben Finney