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As a consequence of its syntax, Whitespace source code can be contained within the whitespace of code written in a language that ignores whitespace – making the text a polyglot. [2] Whitespace is an imperative, stack-based language. The programmer can push arbitrary-width integer values onto a stack and access a heap to store data.
In computer programming, indentation style is a convention, a.k.a. style, governing the indentation of blocks of source code.An indentation style generally involves consistent width of whitespace (indentation size) before each line of a block, so that the lines of code appear to be related, and dictates whether to use space or tab characters for the indentation whitespace.
White space in code is typically stored as whitespace characters. For a free-form language, indentation is exclusively for the programmer since a code processor (i.e. compiler, interpreter) ignores whitespace characters. Code can have inconsistent or even no indentation, but in general is formatted with somewhat consistent indentation.
In an off-side rule language, indentation white space is syntactically significant. In the satirical and contrarian language called Whitespace, whitespace characters are the only significant characters and normal text is ignored. Good use of white space in source code can group related logic and make the code easier to understand. Excessive use ...
Some implementations also include ASCII control codes (non-printing characters) along with whitespace characters. Java's trim method considers ASCII spaces and control codes as whitespace, contrasting with the Java isWhitespace() method, [2] which recognizes all Unicode space characters.
A block is a grouping of code that is treated collectively. Many block syntaxes can consist of any number of items (statements, expressions or other units of code) – including one or zero. Languages delimit a block in a variety of ways – some via marking text and others by relative formatting such as levels of indentation.
As in curly bracket languages, whitespace is mostly ignored by the reader (i.e., the read function). Whitespace is used to separate tokens. [5] The explicit structure of Lisp code allows automatic indenting, to form a visual cue for human readers. Another alternative is for each block to begin and end with explicit keywords.
There is no guarantee that an individual will remember the precise rationale for why a particular piece of code was written in a certain way long after the code was originally written. Coding conventions can help. Consistent use of whitespace improves readability and reduces the time it takes to understand the software.