[Baypiggies] padding variable assignments, why is it bad?

[David Berthelot]

Actually these are some very good examples on how space alignment can help
the code readability.
I think your examples are really convincing.

On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 5:05 PM, Wai Yip Tung <tungwaiyip at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The more accurate way to say this is Python uses indentation level to
> determine block structure. Except at the beginning of a logical line, whitespace
> characters can be used to separate tokens, not defining block structure.
> It isn't me applying different syntax rule. That's how the language is
> defined.
>
> Wai Yip
>
> In addition to the other problems with this, you have another problem:
> you've now got a separate coding standard for variables than you do for
> other code blocks. White space in Python is syntactically meaningful
> *initially* not in the middle or the end. You've just made it meaningful
> (and dependent upon the length of the longest variable name) *medially* and
> that's not Python.
>
> I actually find code that is column-aligned like that to be highly
> distracting. I find regular, PEP-8 code to be much more highly readable.
> And there was a time in the 90s when I was writing column aligned variables
> (for a short while!). Readability at the level of white space is simply a
> matter of getting used to (people that hate it enough usually don't end up
> using Python, when given the choice).
>
> d
>   Wai Yip Tung <tungwaiyip at yahoo.com>
>  Friday, August 10, 2012 12:01 PM
>  Imagine your have some code like this
>
> row.name = encode(src.get('name'), 'xmlref')
> row.description = encode(src.get('description'), 'xmlref')
> row.enabled = encode(src.get('enabled'), 'xmlref')
> row.last_access = encode(src.get('last_access'), 'xmlref')
>
> This looks a mumbo jumbo lines of code.
>
> However by aligning them into columns, the pattern become immediately
> obvious.
>
> row.name        = encode(src.get('name'),        'xmlref')
> row.description = encode(src.get('description'), 'xmlref')
> row.enabled     = encode(src.get('enabled'),     'xmlref')
> row.last_access = encode(src.get('last_access'), 'xmlref')
>
> It is clear that the code is applying similar operation on 4 items. It is
> a lot easier to tell which of the 4 elements and if you should include more
> or less into the list. It is a huge visualization improvement. PEP-8's
> suggestion on this is not a good one in my opinion.
>
> The down side is it takes some effort to keep it neat and tidy. Of course
> I have editor macro that does that. I think every decent text editor should
> have some function to help people to align things.
>
> Wai Yip
>
>
>
>
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>   Aleksandr Miroslav <alexmiroslav at gmail.com>
>  Friday, August 10, 2012 10:19 AM
> (Reading this email requires a monospaced font.)
>
> I do this a lot in my code:
>
> foo = 1
> foo_bar = 2
> foo_bar_quux = 3
>
> but pep8, which I started using recently, considers this wrong, so I
> have to rewrite to the more common form:
>
> foo = 1
> foo_bar = 2
> foo_bar_quux = 3
>
> which I think sacrifices readability. Perhaps this is the n00b in me
> talking, but why is this considered bad?
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