Diez B. Roggisch said:
You are aware that it is only one character more to type?
I'm not arguing for print vs. print(), but I do want to comment on the
"character count" argument.
I'm a pretty good typist, the result of having been forced in junior high
school (in the mid 70's) to learn typing the "right way" -- on a typewriter
with blank keycaps. It forced you to really learn to touch-type. I don't
know if this was some touchy-feely idea that if they girls had to learn to
type (after all, they were all going to be secretaries) then it's only fair
to make the boys learn it too. Or, if they were just amazingly prescient
about computers taking over the world and typing becoming an important
high-tech skill. Either way, I learned to touch type.
That being said, hitting the space bar is pretty much a freebie. You can
do it with either thumb(*), and you don't have to move your fingers from
the home row. To get the ( and ), you have to reach way up to the top row
with one hand and down hit the shift key with the opposite pinkie. A much
costlier operation in terms of maintaining a good typing speed.
On the other hand, it's a well known (or at least well believed
) fact
that code is read many more times than it's written. Making something
easier to read is much more important than making it easy to type.
(*) Oddly enough, as I type this and pay attention to what my fingers are
doing, I find that I almost exclusively use the *left* thumb, which I never
noticed before.