[Python-Dev] pep8 reasoning

[Terry Reedy]

On 4/28/2014 7:13 PM, Chris Barker wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu
> <mailto:tjreedy at udel.edu>> wrote:
>
>         I don't think anyone should write code with variable width fonts,
>
>     The problem is that fixed pitch does not work well for even a
>     half-way complete unicode font and I don't know that there are any
>     available.
> ...
>
>     Given that PEP8 generally disallows adding spaces to make things
>     line up, as in the following (a style I used  to adhere to)
>
>     a     = 134543344  # big number
>     bonge = 2          # short number
>
> Is ironic that that looks like hell in my variable-width font email client?

I believe that has been given as a reason to not do what I used to do. 
The only things guaranteed to actually line up are the initial graphic 
characters of lines with the exact same indent.

tjr