[Python-Dev] PEP 8 recommends short module names because FAT is still common today (was: PEP-8 wart... it recommends short names because of DOS)

[David Mertz]

Even thumb drives use VFAT. Yes it's an ugly hack, but the names aren't
limited to 8.3.
On Oct 20, 2015 6:59 PM, "Ben Finney" <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:

> "Gregory P. Smith" <greg at krypto.org> writes:
>
> > There haven't been computers with less than 80 character file or path
> > name element length limits in wide use in decades... ;)
>
> Not true, your computer will happily mount severely-limited filesystems.
> Indeed, I'd wager it has done so many times this year.
>
> It is *filesystems* that limit the length of filesystem entries, and the
> FAT filesystem is still in very widespread use — on devices mounted by
> the computers you use today.
>
> Yes, we have much better filesystems today, and your primary desktop
> computer will almost certainly use something better than FAT for its
> primary storage's filesystem.
>
> That does not mean Python programmers should assume your computer will
> never mount a FAT filesystem (think small flash storage), nor that a
> program you run will never need to load Python modules from that
> filesystem.
>
>
> You'd like FAT to go away forever? Great, me too. Now we need to
> convince all the vendors of every small storage device – USB thumb
> drives, network routers, all manner of single-purpose devices – to use
> modern filesystems instead.
>
> Then, maybe after another human generation has come and gone, we can
> finally expect every filesystem, in every active device that might run
> any Python code, to be using something with a reasonably-large limit for
> filesystem entries.
>
> Until then, the advice in PEP 8 to keep module names short is reasonable.
>
> --
>  \       “The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in |
>   `\    the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.” |
> _o__)                                                —Henry L. Mencken |
> Ben Finney
>
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