Since Python's use of whitespace is intended to increase the language's visual appeal, you might not find it surprising that it sacrifices usability for non-visual people such as your friend's blind colleague. I don't buy it, though. I think the problem with Python for blind people isn't the language itself; it's the lack of good tools for reading Python code to the blind.
Try reading this code over the phone to somebody:
for name in ('fred', 'george'):
for greeting in ('hello', 'goodbye'):
print greeting, name
greeted[name] = 1
print 'all done'
Use vocabulary like "indent once" or "dedent twice" and it's not too painful. If you, the human, can infer the indent/dedent levels, couldn't a tool for blind folks do the same thing?
I am one of countless people who avoided Python at first--due to being comfortable enough with Perl and distrustful of whitespace--but who then gave Python an honest try and loved it.
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Since Python's use of whitespace is intended to increase the language's visual appeal, you might not find it surprising that it sacrifices usability for non-visual people such as your friend's blind colleague. I don't buy it, though. I think the problem with Python for blind people isn't the language itself; it's the lack of good tools for reading Python code to the blind.
Try reading this code over the phone to somebody:
for name in ('fred', 'george'):
for greeting in ('hello', 'goodbye'):
print greeting, name
greeted[name] = 1
print 'all done'
Use vocabulary like "indent once" or "dedent twice" and it's not too painful. If you, the human, can infer the indent/dedent levels, couldn't a tool for blind folks do the same thing?
I am one of countless people who avoided Python at first--due to being comfortable enough with Perl and distrustful of whitespace--but who then gave Python an honest try and loved it.