this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Because I am not counting white space when I read. Or should we just write machine code/assembler/pick something straight away?

[–] softwarist@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not sure I'm following the jump from significant white space to machine code. How are those related?

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Human and machine read differently. If you ignore that (in case with indentation), then why bother with writing human-friendly form of code, when what is going to be really executed is something else?

[–] softwarist@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If anything, that sounds like an argument in favor of significant indentation, not against it. Humans and machines read differently, yes, which is why we tend to add whitespace and indentation to code even for programming languages where it's not significant. We do that expressly because it makes the code more human-friendly, so it's quite the opposite of ignoring their differences.

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 0 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

No, it is an argument against it. We indent code so that it is more comfortable to read it, not in order to make it easier to understand

[–] softwarist@programming.dev 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You're mistaken:

Indentation is a secondary notation that is often intended to lower cognitive load for a programmer to understand the structure of the code.

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Lol. Go on, show me how it is easier to understand structure of the code when I am 3 levels down, first two are already out of sight

[–] softwarist@programming.dev 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

That's not a coherent argument, but you don't have to agree with me. I think this discussion has run its course.

[–] Shanmugha@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

What a nice way to say "I can't back my standpoint up". Anyway, do have a good day