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Left to Right Programming: Programs Should Be Valid as They Are Typed

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2025-08-17

Left to Right Programming

Programs Should Be Valid as They Are Typed

I don’t like Python’s list comprehensions:

text = "apple banana cherry

dog emu fox" words_on_lines = [ line . split ( ) for line in text . splitlines ( ) ]

Don’t get me wrong, declarative programming is good. However, this syntax has poor ergonomics. Your editor can’t help you out as you write it. To see what I mean, lets walk through typing this code.

words_on_lines = [ l

Ideally, your editor would be to autocomplete line here. Your editor can’t do this because line hasn’t been declared yet.

words_on_lines = [ line . sp

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