Generally it's assumed that significant whitespace is a philosophical or even religious issue: some people love it, others hate it, and while both camps rationalize their preferences, it seems it's it: just a strong preference.
However, I came to think that the difference is not philosophical. It is just that some tools (text editors, e-mail programs, etc) support significant whitespace well, while other don't.
For example, the text editors I use are all set up to display space and tab characters, and to display them differently (usually as a faint dot and a faint mdash, or something). I am used to it, and this does not distract me at all.
From my point of view, code is not some random text. We use fixed-width fonts for it that we would not use in a book, we color-code it, I don't see why not make the white space visible.
I still have a "philosophical" preference for languages without significant whitespace, but I don't hate languages with it, they are not a problem for me at all.
But if the tools you use and love don't have good support for significant whitespace, or you won't make the whitespace visible, or even, you know, use vaiable-size fonts for coding... Well, then you will hate significant whitespace with a passion and consider it pure madness!
However, I came to think that the difference is not philosophical. It is just that some tools (text editors, e-mail programs, etc) support significant whitespace well, while other don't.
For example, the text editors I use are all set up to display space and tab characters, and to display them differently (usually as a faint dot and a faint mdash, or something). I am used to it, and this does not distract me at all.
From my point of view, code is not some random text. We use fixed-width fonts for it that we would not use in a book, we color-code it, I don't see why not make the white space visible.
I still have a "philosophical" preference for languages without significant whitespace, but I don't hate languages with it, they are not a problem for me at all.
But if the tools you use and love don't have good support for significant whitespace, or you won't make the whitespace visible, or even, you know, use vaiable-size fonts for coding... Well, then you will hate significant whitespace with a passion and consider it pure madness!
:-)