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Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language?

From Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Subject Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language?
Date 2011-07-13 13:03 +0000
Organization PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Message-ID <ivk52q$78p$1@reader1.panix.com> (permalink)
References <CAAyd8ckM7WqzTpXzVFFocEFQcm8oeHPQGAv1KH6BcBj6kqA2WA@mail.gmail.com> <mailman.889.1310393783.1164.python-list@python.org> <MPG.288770fad6930dba989832@news.individual.de>

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On 2011-07-13, Thorsten Kampe <thorsten@thorstenkampe.de> wrote:

>> and that that block is to be considered in relation to what was just
>> said, before the colon.
>
> The indentation makes it abundantly clear to the human reader that
> that indented block is to be considered in relation to what was just
> said, before the indentation.

You would think so, but human readers like redundancy.

Most natural human languages have plenty of redundancy.  For example
in English when speaking of multiple subjects one not only uses a
plural noun or pronoun (e.g. "they" rather than "him"), but one also
uses a plural verb ("run" rather than "runs") even though the plural
noun alone should make it abundantly clear to the human reader than
we're talking about more than one person.  The same holds true for
objective and subjective case: the position of the noun in the
sentence makes it abundantly clear whether the noun is an object or a
subject, yet we still often have two cases (it's "I run" rather than
"Me run").

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I'm having an
                                  at               EMOTIONAL OUTBURST!!  But,
                              gmail.com            uh, WHY is there a WAFFLE
                                                   in my PAJAMA POCKET??

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Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Thomas Jollans <t@jollybox.de> - 2011-07-11 16:16 +0200
  Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-07-11 14:43 +0000
  Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? alex23 <wuwei23@gmail.com> - 2011-07-12 23:26 -0700
    Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2011-07-13 12:18 -0400
  Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in   the python language? Thorsten Kampe <thorsten@thorstenkampe.de> - 2011-07-13 10:08 +0200
    Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in   the python language? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-07-13 21:07 +1000
      Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in   the python language? Thorsten Kampe <thorsten@thorstenkampe.de> - 2011-07-13 13:26 +0200
        Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2011-07-13 07:16 -0500
      Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-07-13 21:58 +1000
      Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in   the python language? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-07-13 13:18 +0000
    Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in   the python language? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-07-13 13:03 +0000
      Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-07-13 23:11 +1000
      Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in     the python language? Thorsten Kampe <thorsten@thorstenkampe.de> - 2011-07-13 19:27 +0200
      Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-07-14 14:34 +0000
        Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Wanderer <wanderer@dialup4less.com> - 2011-07-14 08:14 -0700
          Re: An interesting beginner question: why we need colon at all in the python language? Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2011-07-16 14:07 +1000

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