From: tkoenig@netcologne.de   
      
   Lawrence D'Oliveiro  schrieb:   
   > Fortran (in free-form mode) is now the third language I’ve come across   
   > that allows semicolons to terminate statements, but makes them   
   > optional (letting a newline do the job instead).   
      
   Fixed-form Fortran also allows a semicolon.   
      
   [...]   
      
   > Python has I think the most straightforward rule: you need to end a   
   > line with “\” to do explicit continuation, but continuation can be   
   > implicit if there is an unpaired opening parenthesis, bracket or   
   > brace.   
      
   That sounds like a recipe for errors, if you ask me.   
      
   But then again, I don't like Python's reliance on indentation   
   as marking control structure, either, so maybe this is just   
   not a language for me.   
      
   >So complex expressions can be written with minimal clutter:   
   >   
   >     section_verts = \   
   >         [   
   >             start + vec(0, - rail_width / 2, 0),   
   >             start + vec(0, rail_width / 2, 0),   
   >             start + vec(0, - rail_width / 2, rail_thickness * slope_adjust),   
   >             start + vec(0, rail_width / 2, rail_thickness * slope_adjust),   
   >         ]   
   >   
   > Free-form Fortran, on the other hand, requires an explicit “&” to   
   > continue a line in all cases:   
   >   
   >     character(len = 9), dimension(3, 4), parameter :: month_names = &   
   >         reshape &   
   >           ( &   
   >             (/ ' January ', ' February', '  March  ', '  April  ', &   
   >             '    May  ', '   June  ', '   July  ', '  August ', &   
   >             'September', ' October ', ' November', ' December' /), &   
   >             (/3, 4/) &   
   >           )   
   >   
   > Wouldn’t it be useful if it had a smarter, Python-style rule?   
      
   I don't think it is particularly useful to mix parentheses and line   
   continuation.   
      
   And the chances of the committee changing that now, 33 years after   
   free-form Fortran came out, infinitesimal.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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