[Python-Dev] [Python-checkins] r60919 - peps/trunk/pep-0008.txt

[Brett Cannon]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 9:15 AM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
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>  On Feb 21, 2008, at 11:21 AM, skip.montanaro wrote:
>
>  > Author: skip.montanaro
>  > Date: Thu Feb 21 17:21:15 2008
>  > New Revision: 60919
>  >
>  > Modified:
>  >   peps/trunk/pep-0008.txt
>  > Log:
>  > Replace "looks ugly" with a hopefully more concrete explanation of
>  > why line
>  > wrapping is bad - it disrupts the visual structure of the code.
>  >
>  >
>  > Modified: peps/trunk/pep-0008.txt
>  > =
>  > =
>  > =
>  > =
>  > =
>  > =
>  > =
>  > =
>  > ======================================================================
>  > --- peps/trunk/pep-0008.txt   (original)
>  > +++ peps/trunk/pep-0008.txt   Thu Feb 21 17:21:15 2008
>  > @@ -77,10 +77,11 @@
>  >
>  >     There are still many devices around that are limited to 80
>  > character
>  >     lines; plus, limiting windows to 80 characters makes it possible
>  > to have
>  > -    several windows side-by-side.  The default wrapping on such
>  > devices looks
>  > -    ugly.  Therefore, please limit all lines to a maximum of 79
>  > characters.
>  > -    For flowing long blocks of text (docstrings or comments),
>  > limiting the
>  > -    length to 72 characters is recommended.
>  > +    several windows side-by-side.  The default wrapping on such
>  > devices
>  > +    disrupts the visual structure of the code, making it more
>  > difficult to
>  > +    understand.  Therefore, please limit all lines to a maximum of 79
>  > +    characters.  For flowing long blocks of text (docstrings or
>  > comments),
>  > +    limiting the length to 72 characters is recommended.
>
>  Why should docstrings and comments be limited to 72 characters when
>  code is limited to 79 characters?  I ask because there is an ongoing
>  debate at my company about this.
>
>  Personally, I see no justification for it, and further, it's a pita to
>  support automatically because tools like Emacs only have one auto-
>  wrapping variable (fill-column).  Emacs doesn't know that it should
>  fill comments and docstrings different than code lines, so you have to
>  do a bunch of manual crud to support these guidelines.
>
>  I recommend removing the guideline of 72 characters, and just say
>  everything, code, comments, and docstrings should be no wider than 79
>  characters.

+1 from me. I know having a separate line break rule just for PEPs and
such is a pain as I am having to constantly look down at the column
number to know when I have run afoul of this.

-Brett