text: On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 8:05 AM, Riobard Zhan yaogzhan@gmail.com wrote: >
  On 5-Feb-09, at 12:37 AM, Ben Finney wrote: >.
  Actually this is the first concrete example for colons. Thanks very much for bringing it up, Ben! :)
  Here is a counter-example for the strong visual indicator cause.
  for some_list in some_collection: do_something(some_list[1: ], something_else)
  True; however, the parentheses and brackets are unbalanced and that
  immediately stands out, at least for me, so I see something odd is
  going on right away.
  You do have to admit that example is a bit contrived though. Move the
  ], back onto the previous line and the code becomes perfectly clear.
  I would also defend colons on the grounds that they let particularly short statements be one-liners:
  def add(x,y): return x+y
  # this one especially comes up a lot in practice
  if x is None: x=42
  for i in alist: print(i)
  with the added bonus that you're forced to indent if the body becomes multiline (unless you use semicolons that is, in which case you're destined to burn in the Nth circle of Hell for your sin against the BDFL (blessed be his holiness) ;-P).
  -1; colons enhance readability and are almost never forgotten after you get over the initial hurdle of learning a new language.
  Cheers, Chris
  -- Follow the path of the Iguana...