In Fortran 77 (and probably older ones), you require six spaces before each line. This makes it incredibly difficult to golf, so should we count those spaces in the byte/character count?
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2\$\begingroup\$ Use Fortran 90+ :P \$\endgroup\$ – Martin Ender Nov 9 '14 at 10:39
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\$\begingroup\$ Related \$\endgroup\$ – Peter Taylor Nov 9 '14 at 14:26
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\$\begingroup\$ Java is also at a ridiculous disadvantage, but plenty of answers here. I think they really just compete against the other Java answers or you know - just have fun. \$\endgroup\$ – gnibbler Nov 9 '14 at 22:36
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Yes, count them
Every language has its pros and cons, but that doesn't mean that every language should get special treatment. If the person posing a question wants to set up a complicated handicap system then that's their decision, but the default assumption should be that a code-golf program's score is the size that a tool such as wc would report for the source file, with appropriate adjustments for special flags.
answered Nov 9 '14 at 14:30
