How to make Ruby's N ends look better?

How to make Ruby's N ends look better? - ruby

As I write some scripts, I usually reach a point where my code looks like this :
end
end
end
end
end
end
I don't know about you, but this look very ugly to me. Can something be done about this?

Don't nest your code so much? Refactor to use more methods? Use blocks passed to other routines instead?
Generally speaking, deep nesting is an indicator that a method is getting too complex and should be broken up. It can help for implicit structural documentation too, by naming the inner compound statements according to their refactored methods.

The advice to break up into smaller pieces is good. But if you need a lot of nested blocks like that, you can label the end keywords with comments.
end # End conditional statement
end # End method declaration
end # End class declaration
Still ugly, but at least clearer.
The other options previously mentioned are preferable.

If those inner blocks do something easy to name (and maybe reusable?), why not refactor them into small separate functions ? Then you'd end up with much shorter sequences of end's.
Otherwise another approach is using Python :-)

Try to use small, testable functions. Not only are your functions and more importantly logic easy to test, but your code becomes way more readable.

I have seen nested "{ }" blocks and 4-space soft tabs and:
end;end;end;end
I suppose this saves vertical space, but I don't recommend, The above comments on avoiding deep nesting and commenting your block-ending lines are the valid approaches. Maybe deep nesting is to avoid method call overhead for things that need speeding up, but readability almost always trumps that kind of "optimization"

If you're happy to compile your own Ruby, you could use ennnnnnnd style syntax (link is to RubyKaigi talk). Unfortunately for you, this has been suggested and rejected by Ruby core.

Related

Any reason I should not be using send like this?

I am trying to keep my classes encapsulated as much as possible. Any reason that I should not use the send method like this?
class MyClass
def self.join_two_strings(first, second)
new.send(:join_two_strings, first, second)
end
def join_two_strings(first, second)
first + second
end
private :join_two_strings
end

Since #join_two_strings doesn't actually need any instance state, it should just be a class method.
class MyClass
def self.join_two_strings(first, second)
first + second
end
end

Yes, there is reason not to do that. It is because it is verbose. To achieve what you want, you should code like in Chris Heald's answer. (Chris Heald suggests what you should do, but does not answer your question).

To call the problem with your use of #send even more precisely, it is not verbosity, but obscuring of the design intent. Sometimes verbosity (such as using full words, rather than abbreviations) serves to reveal the design intent and shorten the time reader needs to understand your code. With your code example, the reader does not believe that what you want to achieve is mere joining of 2 strings, they keep searching for deeper meaning, before conceding that it is just a complicated method to do a simple thing (and possibly refactoring your code as Chris did). As for #send itself, do not fear it, do not fear to use it. Though #send should not be used as a tool to arbitrarily disrespect privacy of methods, on the other hand, Ruby methods are messages and you don't have to worry to be explicit about it, where there is a reason for it.

Use parentheses to enclose a block in Ruby?

I have accidentally discovered the Ruby idiom of ||=(),
as in:
def app_logger
#app_logger ||= (
logfile = File.open(::Rails.root.join(LOG_FILE), 'a')
logfile.sync = true
AppLogger.new(logfile)
)
end
I tried to use {} instead of (), but it didn't work. I thought {} is meant to enclose a block.
Is this a known idiom? Is it a good style?
I haven't found much documentation on this kind of use of parentheses. Any pointers would be helpful.
Please note this post is about the use of () this way, not the use of ||=. There are many posts about this latter idiom already.

Like a lot of things in Ruby that can be done, many of them shouldn't be done and this is one of them.
Using brackets to group code when there are already other facilities is potentially confusing and almost certainly contrary to many coding style guides. If I saw this in code I was managing, I'd immediately fix it.
What's best is to use the begin/end markers to make it completely clear what's going on:
def app_logger
#app_logger ||= begin
logfile = File.open(::Rails.root.join(LOG_FILE), 'a')
logfile.sync = true
AppLogger.new(logfile)
end
end
A lot of things in Ruby evaluate down to a single value, and the contents of (...) are apparently one of those things.
Your other example of foo ||= (a=10; a+10) being "nicer" is also rather controversial. This does two assignment and addition, but only conditionally. This one would almost always be better written in long-form with begin/end to make it clear that a+10 is the result.
From a style perspective, hiding the "important" part of that, the a+10, at the end of a line is bad, it can be overlooked. Having it as the last line makes it abundantly clear. This is also why having if statements tacked on the end of long lines is also bad, it hides that the line is only conditionally executed.
Concern for brevity is always trumped by concerns of readability. Saving a couple of bytes on disk is not going to help you one bit when, due to someone misreading your code, they introduce a crippling bug.
That someone could be you in the future when you get caught up in your own cleverness. It's happened to all of us at some point.

In addition to #tadman's answer, I'd counter that writing the method in a more Ruby-like way maintains the readability and keeps it nice and tight:
def app_logger
return #app_logger if #app_logger
logfile = File.open(::Rails.root.join(LOG_FILE), 'a')
logfile.sync = true
#app_logger = AppLogger.new(logfile)
end
For my intent and rationale in writing it this way, see my comment to this answer in response to #fotanus's comment.
Our brains become conditioned to see patterns as we learn to program and learn new languages. Whether the patterns are in hexcode emitted by a debugger or C, Perl, Python, Java or Ruby, we still see patterns. When we're used to seeing them we tend to want to change code to resemble those familiar constructs. That's why Perl and C programmers tend to write Java, Python and Ruby like C and Perl at first. The "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", but that same beauty is a weed when it's out of place, just as wild-flowers are out of place in formal gardens or the middle of a fairway. We should write in the vernacular of the programming language, because that is the way of speaking expected by those who live in that land.
Something to remember is, though we, personally, might be a code-studly monster who can reduce code from multiple lines down to a single character, what will keep me in a job is the ability to write code other people can understand, without necessarily having to be of the same caliber. Code crunching invariably reaches a point of diminishing returns, well before it has been reduced to its minimal size, especially when that code is running in a production environment and is being maintained by junior programmers and there is a need to extend or debug it, and the clock is ticking. Minutes = dollars where I work, and the dollars have really big multipliers, which causes the walls to leak managers like cockroaches when a bug-bomb goes off. (Oh... did I call managers cockroaches? Whatever.)
Being called the morning after an event and being thanked for writing code that made it easy for them to debug/fix or amend/extend is a whole lot better than being called at 2:45AM and asked to get online to help. I value my sleep and that of my coding-partners and push for maintainable code as our #1 priority.
That's my $0.02.

Parentheses are really ugly for in my opinion. Why you don't delegate logic behind creating logger to method?
def app_logger
#app_logger ||= instantiate_app_logger
end
def instantiate_app_logger
logfile = File.open(::Rails.root.join(LOG_FILE), 'a')
logfile.sync = true
AppLogger.new(logfile)
end
But I am afraid that it breaks some OOP, your code also. Why AppLoger class can't open file based on passed path and turning syncing on? It will be so much cleaner.

Ruby: unless vs if not

I find myself preferring if not rather than unless. Is there a proper way to write that sort of condition? How do people generally feel about unless?

I hope this helps you: https://github.com/rubocop-hq/ruby-style-guide#if-vs-unless
Prefer unless over if for negative conditions (or control flow ||).
# bad
do_something if !some_condition
# bad
do_something if not some_condition
# good
do_something unless some_condition
I personally agree with what's written there choosing unless something over if !something for modifiers and simple ones and when there's an else prefer if.

I use unless every time, except when there is an else clause.
So, I'll use
unless blah_blah
...
end
but if there is an else condition, I'll use if not (or if !)
if !blah_blah
...
else
...
end
After using if ! for years and years and years, it actually took me a while to get used to unless. Nowadays I prefer it in every case where reading it out loud sounds natural.
I'm also a fan of using a trailing unless
increment_by_one unless max_value_reached I'm using these method/variable names obviously as a readability example - the code's structure should basically follow that pattern, in my opinion.
In a broader sense, the structure should be: take_action unless exception_applies

if not condition is rarely used. Ruby programmers (usually coming from other languages) tend to prefer the use if !condition.
On the other side, unless is widely use in case there is a single condition and if it sounds readable.
Also see making sense with Ruby unless for further suggestions about unless coding style.

Are there any Ruby language features you avoid?

It seems to me like Ruby has a lot of syntactic flexibility, and many things may be written in several ways.
Are there any language features/syntactic sugar/coding conventions that you avoid as a Ruby programmer for clarity? I am asking about things that you choose not to use on purpose, not stuff you still have to learn.
If your answer is, "I use everything!," do you ever comment code that would be otherwise obvious if the reader knows the relevant Ruby syntax?
[I'm particularly interested in Ruby in a RoR context, but everything is welcome.]

The whole range of "$" globals (see Pickaxe2 pp333-336) mostly inherited from Perl, are pretty ghastly, although I have on occasion found myself using $: instead of $LOAD_PATH.

I generally refrain from going overboard with monkey patching because it could lead to some maintainability and readability issues. It's a great feature if used correctly, but it's easy to get carried away.

The for ... in ... loop. It directly compiles to obj.each (and throws a strange error message accordingly) and is totally unnecessary. I don't even see where it improves readability - if you've been around ruby for more than a week, #each should be natural.

This might be obvious but I generally avoid using eval if there's any alternative.

First off: I'll break many of these rules if it's for a short one-off script, or a one-liner on the command line, or in irb. But most of my time is spent in medium sized or larger scripts or applications. So:
Avoid:
using class << self code block for class methods. It's a cute trick, but no better than def self.foo, and less readable (especially after the first page).
for i in collection: Use collection.each instead.
proc {...}: usually lambda {...} is better.
class variables (e.g. ##foo). They are problematic and can usually be replaced with class-level instance variables without much effort.
Anything that causes a warning, and preferably anything that causes a warning when run via the more strict ruby -w. This is especially important if you are writing a gem to be used by others.
'else' on a 'begin ... rescue ... end' block. Personal preference: It's too much of an edge case and so few people even know it exists or how it works to be worth it.
ObjectSpace and GC. You probably don't need to go there. You definitely don't want to go there.
=begin and =end multi-line comments. Personal preference for line-wise comments. These just annoy the hell out of me.
Use it, but sparingly or as a last resort (and comment it appropriately):
eval (or class_eval, etc) when passing in a string. There are some metaprogramming tricks you just can't do without passing in a string. And occasionally, the string version performs dramatically better (and sometimes that matters). Otherwise, I prefer to send in blocks of actual ruby code for my metaprogramming. eval can be avoided entirely for many metaprogramming tasks.
Adding or redefining methods on classes which were not created by me and may be used by code outside my control; a.k.a. monkey-patching. This rule is mostly for larger codebases and libraries; I'll gladly and quickly make an exception for small one-off scripts. I'll also make an exception for fixing buggy third-party libraries (although you may shoot yourself in the foot when you upgrade!). Selector namespaces (or something similar) would go a long way to make ruby nice in this regard. That said, sometimes it is worth the trouble. ;-)
Global variables (except for classes). I'll even pass in $stdout as a parameter to my objects or methods, rather than use them directly. It makes re-use of the code much easier and safer. Sometimes you can't avoid it (e.g. $0, $:, $$ and other environmental variables, but even then you can limit your usage).
speaking of which, I prefer to limit my usage of the perlish symbol globals entirely, but if they need to be used more than a little bit, then require "English".
break, redo, next, try: Often they make a block, loop, or method much more elegant than it otherwise could be. Usually they just make you scratch your head for a few minutes when you haven't seen that code for a while.
__END__ for a data-block. Excellent for a small one-file script. Unhelpful for a multi-file app.
Don't use it, but don't really avoid it either:
try/catch
continuations
Things I use often, that others might not care for, or I don't see often:
'and' and 'or' keywords: they have different precedence from && and ||, so you need to be careful with them. I find their different precedence to be very useful.
regex black magic (provided I've got some examples in unit tests for it)
HEREDOC strings

One thing I really loathe is "improper" use of {} and do ... end for blocks. I can't seem to find exactly where I learnt the practice myself but it is generally accepted to do {} for single line blocks and do ... end for multiline blocks.
Proper use:
[1, 2, 3, 4].map {|n| n * n }.inject(1) { |n,product| n * product }
or
[1, 2, 3, 4].inject do |n,product|
n = n * n
product = n * product
end
Improper use:
[1,2,3,4].map do |n| n * n end.inject(1) do |n,product| n * product end
or
[1, 2, 3, 4].inject { |n,product|
n = n * n
product = n * product
}
All of which, of course, will execute giving 576

Avoid chaining too many method calls together. It is very common in Ruby to chain methods together.
user.friends.each {|friend| friend.invite_to_party}
This may seem ok, but breaks Law of Demeter:
More formally, the Law of Demeter for functions requires that a method M of an object O may only invoke the methods of the following kinds of objects:
O itself
M's parameters
any objects created/instantiated
within M
O's direct component objects
The example above isn't perfect and a better solution would be something like this:
user.invite_friends_to_party
The example's problem isn't Ruby's fault but it is very easy to produce code that breaks Law of Demeter and makes code unreadable.
In short, avoid features that decreases code readability. It is a very important that the code you produce is easy to read.

begin nil+234 rescue '' end
above syntax is valid, but you should never use it.

What are your language "hangups"? [closed]

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I've read some of the recent language vs. language questions with interest... Perl vs. Python, Python vs. Java, Can one language be better than another?
One thing I've noticed is that a lot of us have very superficial reasons for disliking languages. We notice these things at first glance and they turn us off. We shun what are probably perfectly good languages as a result of features that we'd probably learn to love or ignore in 2 seconds if we bothered.
Well, I'm as guilty as the next guy, if not more. Here goes:
Ruby: All the Ruby example code I see uses the puts command, and that's a sort of childish Yiddish anatomical term. So as a result, I can't take Ruby code seriously even though I should.
Python: The first time I saw it, I smirked at the whole significant whitespace thing. I avoided it for the next several years. Now I hardly use anything else.
Java: I don't like identifiersThatLookLikeThis. I'm not sure why exactly.
Lisp: I have trouble with all the parentheses. Things of different importance and purpose (function declarations, variable assignments, etc.) are not syntactically differentiated and I'm too lazy to learn what's what.
Fortran: uppercase everything hurts my eyes. I know modern code doesn't have to be written like that, but most example code is...
Visual Basic: it bugs me that Dim is used to declare variables, since I remember the good ol' days of GW-BASIC when it was only used to dimension arrays.
What languages did look right to me at first glance? Perl, C, QBasic, JavaScript, assembly language, BASH shell, FORTH.
Okay, now that I've aired my dirty laundry... I want to hear yours. What are your language hangups? What superficial features bother you? How have you gotten over them?

I hate Hate HATE "End Function" and "End IF" and "If... Then" parts of VB. I would much rather see a curly bracket instead.

PHP's function name inconsistencies.
// common parameters back-to-front
in_array(needle, haystack);
strpos(haystack, needle);
// _ to separate words, or not?
filesize();
file_exists;
// super globals prefix?
$GLOBALS;
$_POST;

I never really liked the keywords spelled backwards in some scripting shells
if-then-fi is bad enough, but case-in-esac is just getting silly

I just thought of another... I hate the mostly-meaningless URLs used in XML to define namespaces, e.g. xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/"

Pascal's Begin and End. Too verbose, not subject to bracket matching, and worse, there isn't a Begin for every End, eg.
Type foo = Record
// ...
end;

Although I'm mainly a PHP developer, I dislike languages that don't let me do enough things inline. E.g.:
$x = returnsArray();
$x[1];
instead of
returnsArray()[1];
or
function sort($a, $b) {
return $a < $b;
}
usort($array, 'sort');
instead of
usort($array, function($a, $b) { return $a < $b; });

I like object-oriented style. So it bugs me in Python to see len(str) to get the length of a string, or splitting strings like split(str, "|") in another language. That is fine in C; it doesn't have objects. But Python, D, etc. do have objects and use obj.method() other places. (I still think Python is a great language.)
Inconsistency is another big one for me. I do not like inconsistent naming in the same library: length(), size(), getLength(), getlength(), toUTFindex() (why not toUtfIndex?), Constant, CONSTANT, etc.
The long names in .NET bother me sometimes. Can't they shorten DataGridViewCellContextMenuStripNeededEventArgs somehow? What about ListViewVirtualItemsSelectionRangeChangedEventArgs?
And I hate deep directory trees. If a library/project has a 5 level deep directory tree, I'm going to have trouble with it.

C and C++'s syntax is a bit quirky. They reuse operators for different things. You're probably so used to it that you don't think about it (nor do I), but consider how many meanings parentheses have:
int main() // function declaration / definition
printf("hello") // function call
(int)x // type cast
2*(7+8) // override precedence
int (*)(int) // function pointer
int x(3) // initializer
if (condition) // special part of syntax of if, while, for, switch
And if in C++ you saw
foo<bar>(baz(),baaz)
you couldn't know the meaning without the definition of foo and bar.
the < and > might be a template instantiation, or might be less-than and greater-than (unusual but legal)
the () might be a function call, or might be just surrounding the comma operator (ie. perform baz() for size-effects, then return baaz).
The silly thing is that other languages have copied some of these characteristics!

Java, and its checked exceptions. I left Java for a while, dwelling in the .NET world, then recently came back.
It feels like, sometimes, my throws clause is more voluminous than my method content.

There's nothing in the world I hate more than php.
Variables with $, that's one extra odd character for every variable.
Members are accessed with -> for no apparent reason, one extra character for every member access.
A freakshow of language really.
No namespaces.
Strings are concatenated with ..
A freakshow of language.

All the []s and #s in Objective C. Their use is so different from the underlying C's native syntax that the first time I saw them it gave the impression that all the object-orientation had been clumsily bolted on as an afterthought.

I abhor the boiler plate verbosity of Java.
writing getters and setters for properties
checked exception handling and all the verbiage that implies
long lists of imports
Those, in connection with the Java convention of using veryLongVariableNames, sometimes have me thinking I'm back in the 80's, writing IDENTIFICATION DIVISION. at the top of my programs.
Hint: If you can automate the generation of part of your code in your IDE, that's a good hint that you're producing boilerplate code. With automated tools, it's not a problem to write, but it's a hindrance every time someone has to read that code - which is more often.
While I think it goes a bit overboard on type bureaucracy, Scala has successfully addressed some of these concerns.

Coding Style inconsistencies in team projects.
I'm working on a large team project where some contributors have used 4 spaces instead of the tab character.
Working with their code can be very annoying - I like to keep my code clean and with a consistent style.
It's bad enough when you use different standards for different languages, but in a web project with HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and MySQL, that's 5 languages, 5 different styles, and multiplied by the number of people working on the project.
I'd love to re-format my co-workers code when I need to fix something, but then the repository would think I changed every line of their code.

It irritates me sometimes how people expect there to be one language for all jobs. Depending on the task you are doing, each language has its advantages and disadvantages. I like the C-based syntax languages because it's what I'm most used to and I like the flexibility they tend to bestow on the developer. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility, and having the power to write 150 line LINQ statements doesn't mean you should.
I love the inline XML in the latest version of VB.NET although I don't like working with VB mainly because I find the IDE less helpful than the IDE for C#.

If Microsoft had to invent yet another C++-like language in C# why didn't they correct Java's mistake and implement support for RAII?

Case sensitivity.
What kinda hangover do you need to think that differentiating two identifiers solely by caSE is a great idea?

I hate semi-colons. I find they add a lot of noise and you rarely need to put two statements on a line. I prefer the style of Python and other languages... end of line is end of a statement.

Any language that can't fully decide if Arrays/Loop/string character indexes are zero based or one based.
I personally prefer zero based, but any language that mixes the two, or lets you "configure" which is used can drive you bonkers. (Apache Velocity - I'm looking in your direction!)
snip from the VTL reference (default is 1, but you can set it to 0):
# Default starting value of the loop
# counter variable reference.
directive.foreach.counter.initial.value = 1
(try merging 2 projects that used different counter schemes - ugh!)

In no particular order...
OCaml
Tuples definitions use * to separate items rather than ,. So, ("Juliet", 23, true) has the type (string * int * bool).
For being such an awesome language, the documentation has this haunting comment on threads: "The threads library is implemented by time-sharing on a single processor. It will not take advantage of multi-processor machines. Using this library will therefore never make programs run faster." JoCaml doesn't fix this problem.
^^^ I've heard the Jane Street guys were working to add concurrent GC and multi-core threads to OCaml, but I don't know how successful they've been. I can't imagine a language without multi-core threads and GC surviving very long.
No easy way to explore modules in the toplevel. Sure, you can write module q = List;; and the toplevel will happily print out the module definition, but that just seems hacky.
C#
Lousy type inference. Beyond the most trivial expressions, I have to give types to generic functions.
All the LINQ code I ever read uses method syntax, x.Where(item => ...).OrderBy(item => ...). No one ever uses expression syntax, from item in x where ... orderby ... select. Between you and me, I think expression syntax is silly, if for no other reason than that it looks "foreign" against the backdrop of all other C# and VB.NET code.
LINQ
Every other language uses the industry standard names are Map, Fold/Reduce/Inject, and Filter. LINQ has to be different and uses Select, Aggregate, and Where.
Functional Programming
Monads are mystifying. Having seen the Parser monad, Maybe monad, State, and List monads, I can understand perfectly how the code works; however, as a general design pattern, I can't seem to look at problems and say "hey, I bet a monad would fit perfect here".
Ruby
GRRRRAAAAAAAH!!!!! I mean... seriously.
VB
Module Hangups
Dim _juliet as String = "Too Wordy!"
Public Property Juliet() as String
Get
Return _juliet
End Get
Set (ByVal value as String)
_juliet = value
End Set
End Property
End Module
And setter declarations are the bane of my existence. Alright, so I change the data type of my property -- now I need to change the data type in my setter too? Why doesn't VB borrow from C# and simply incorporate an implicit variable called value?
.NET Framework
I personally like Java casing convention: classes are PascalCase, methods and properties are camelCase.

In C/C++, it annoys me how there are different ways of writing the same code.
e.g.
if (condition)
{
callSomeConditionalMethod();
}
callSomeOtherMethod();
vs.
if (condition)
callSomeConditionalMethod();
callSomeOtherMethod();
equate to the same thing, but different people have different styles. I wish the original standard was more strict about making a decision about this, so we wouldn't have this ambiguity. It leads to arguments and disagreements in code reviews!

I found Perl's use of "defined" and "undefined" values to be so useful that I have trouble using scripting languages without it.
Perl:
($lastname, $firstname, $rest) = split(' ', $fullname);
This statement performs well no matter how many words are in $fullname. Try it in Python, and it explodes if $fullname doesn't contain exactly three words.

SQL, they say you should not use cursors and when you do, you really understand why...
its so heavy going!
DECLARE mycurse CURSOR LOCAL FAST_FORWARD READ_ONLY
FOR
SELECT field1, field2, fieldN FROM atable
OPEN mycurse
FETCH NEXT FROM mycurse INTO #Var1, #Var2, #VarN
WHILE ##fetch_status = 0
BEGIN
-- do something really clever...
FETCH NEXT FROM mycurse INTO #Var1, #Var2, #VarN
END
CLOSE mycurse
DEALLOCATE mycurse

Although I program primarily in python, It irks me endlessly that lambda body's must be expressions.
I'm still wrapping my brain around JavaScript, and as a whole, Its mostly acceptable. Why is it so hard to create a namespace. In TCL they're just ugly, but in JavaScript, it's actually a rigmarole AND completely unreadable.
In SQL how come everything is just one, huge freekin SELECT statement.

In Ruby, I very strongly dislike how methods do not require self. to be called on current instance, but properties do (otherwise they will clash with locals); i.e.:
def foo()
123
end
def foo=(x)
end
def bar()
x = foo() # okay, same as self.foo()
x = foo # not okay, reads unassigned local variable foo
foo = 123 # not okay, assigns local variable foo
end
To my mind, it's very inconsistent. I'd rather prefer to either always require self. in all cases, or to have a sigil for locals.

Java's packages. I find them complex, more so because I am not a corporation.
I vastly prefer namespaces. I'll get over it, of course - I'm playing with the Android SDK, and Eclipse removes a lot of the pain. I've never had a machine that could run it interactively before, and now I do I'm very impressed.

Prolog's if-then-else syntax.
x -> y ; z
The problem is that ";" is the "or" operator, so the above looks like "x implies y or z".

Java
Generics (Java version of templates) are limited. I can not call methods of the class and I can not create instances of the class. Generics are used by containers, but I can use containers of instances of Object.
No multiple inheritance. If a multiple inheritance use does not lead to diamond problem, it should be allowed. It should allow to write a default implementation of interface methods, a example of problem: the interface MouseListener has 5 methods, one for each event. If I want to handle just one of them, I have to implement the 4 other methods as an empty method.
It does not allow to choose to manually manage memory of some objects.
Java API uses complex combination of classes to do simple tasks. Example, if I want to read from a file, I have to use many classes (FileReader, FileInputStream).
Python
Indentation is part of syntax, I prefer to use the word "end" to indicate end of block and the word "pass" would not be needed.
In classes, the word "self" should not be needed as argument of functions.
C++
Headers are the worst problem. I have to list the functions in a header file and implement them in a cpp file. It can not hide dependencies of a class. If a class A uses the class B privately as a field, if I include the header of A, the header of B will be included too.
Strings and arrays came from C, they do not provide a length field. It is difficult to control if std::string and std::vector will use stack or heap. I have to use pointers with std::string and std::vector if I want to use assignment, pass as argument to a function or return it, because its "=" operator will copy entire structure.
I can not control the constructor and destructor. It is difficult to create an array of objects without a default constructor or choose what constructor to use with if and switch statements.

In most languages, file access. VB.NET is the only language so far where file access makes any sense to me. I do not understand why if I want to check if a file exists, I should use File.exists("") or something similar instead of creating a file object (actually FileInfo in VB.NET) and asking if it exists. And then if I want to open it, I ask it to open: (assuming a FileInfo object called fi) fi.OpenRead, for example. Returns a stream. Nice. Exactly what I wanted. If I want to move a file, fi.MoveTo. I can also do fi.CopyTo. What is this nonsense about not making files full-fledged objects in most languages? Also, if I want to iterate through the files in a directory, I can just create the directory object and call .GetFiles. Or I can do .GetDirectories, and I get a whole new set of DirectoryInfo objects to play with.
Admittedly, Java has some of this file stuff, but this nonsense of having to have a whole object to tell it how to list files is just silly.
Also, I hate ::, ->, => and all other multi-character operators except for <= and >= (and maybe -- and ++).

[Disclaimer: i only have a passing familiarity with VB, so take my comments with a grain of salt]
I Hate How Every Keyword In VB Is Capitalized Like This. I saw a blog post the other week (month?) about someone who tried writing VB code without any capital letters (they did something to a compiler that would let them compile VB code like that), and the language looked much nicer!

My big hangup is MATLAB's syntax. I use it, and there are things I like about it, but it has so many annoying quirks. Let's see.
Matrices are indexed with parentheses. So if you see something like Image(350,260), you have no clue from that whether we're getting an element from the Image matrix, or if we're calling some function called Image and passing arguments to it.
Scope is insane. I seem to recall that for loop index variables stay in scope after the loop ends.
If you forget to stick a semicolon after an assignment, the value will be dumped to standard output.
You may have one function per file. This proves to be very annoying for organizing one's work.
I'm sure I could come up with more if I thought about it.

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