The first time I tried to learn Python, I almost gave up over indentation

I remember back in 2017, I picked up a book on Python and spent a whole weekend trying to figure out why my code wouldn't run. It kept throwing errors about spaces and tabs... and I just couldn't wrap my head around it. I was so used to C-style languages where curly braces did all the work, you know? Now I use an editor that auto-formats everything for me, and it's like night and day. Honestly, I don't think I'd have stuck with coding if I had to fight with indentation back then. But now that I get it, it actually makes the code cleaner to read. Has anyone else had a specific language feature that almost made them quit? I still remember the frustration over something so simple.

2 comments

2 Comments

scott.grace10d ago

Wait, are you sure it was 2017? I thought Python 3 was already pretty established by then and most editors handled tabs and spaces automatically. Maybe you were using a really old version or a bare bones text editor?

wyatt86210d ago

Correct you there @scott.grace - Python 2 was still pretty common in 2017, especially in older codebases and some sysadmin scripts that never got upgraded. The editor thing is where most people trip up, since Notepad++ or basic text editors don't always make the whitespace mixing obvious.