[Python-ideas] 80 character line width vs. something wider

[Mart Sõmermaa]

While aesthetics is a highly subjective matter, good code tends to
have a "paucity begets expressiveness" feeling. I.e. experienced
programmers seem to have developed an intuition for finding succinct
names for entities -- names that convey the underlying meaning to the
onlooker at first glance. That style is accompanied by good structure
with groups of usually shortish lines with meaningful empty lines in
between. The result is like good minimalist prose or a poem: a
consistent piece of thinking, a pause, another piece that follows
naturally from the previous.

Aesthetically, this style contradicts with verboseness, long lines and
generally cramming things together. The latter usually convey the
image of uncertainty -- i.e. the writer is only yet trying to find a
way of succinct expression, feeling a bit disoriented in the domain or
language and wanting to hide the lack of confidence behind verbosity
and pompous style.

After all, Python has zen built in, so lets walk the path of 'import
this' and revere the beauty of PEP-8 :).

So, personally, I'm -0 (not that my opinion matters of course, and,
after all, this is classic bikeshedding) even though quite a few of
the previous arguments supporting longer lines are sensible.