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

[Jeremiah Dodds]

On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 11:01 AM, Ben Finney
<ben+python at benfinney.id.au<ben%2Bpython at benfinney.id.au>
> wrote:

> Jeremiah Dodds <jeremiah.dodds at gmail.com>
> writes:
>
> > hmm, the 80-character convention does not stop me from unconsciously
> > writing really complex list comprehensions, I just write them like so:
> >
> > def foo(f, a, b, c):
> >     return [[((f(x,y) * i, i) if i % 2 else 0)
> >                 for i, x in enumerate(a)
> >                 if f(y, x) == a + x]
> >               for y in [c(z) for z in range(a, a*b+c, c)]]
> >
> > not that that's really any better.
>
> On the contrary, I find that *much* easier to grasp than the same
> statement on a single line. You have been required, by choosing to
> follow the 80-column limit, to choose points at which to break the line;
> and have responded by breaking it up into conceptually discrete chunks
> and indented to suggest the structure.
>
> This example is, for me, a very convincing (anecdotal) demonstration of
> why an 80-column limit is a good constraint to follow.
>

Oh, yes - I consider it much easier to read than the single-line equivalent.
What I meant by "not that that's really any better" was more along the lines
of "that statement should probably be refactored". It's very rare that I run
into a case where a convoluted list comprehension like that isn't better
written some other way. Sometimes I end up with stuff like that when I've
made incorrect assumptions while designing a program, etc.


>
> > But yeah, this is all anectodal evidence and personal taste, as
> > Raymond points out.
>
> Yet it's also more than that; to call it “personal taste” is to imply
> that it's nothing more than aesthetics. If that's all it were, I'd care
> far less for changes in convention.
>
> I consider it rather more importantly a matter of software ergonomics,
> which should therefore not be changed unless there's good supporting
> evidence that the proposed change results in improvement.
>

I tend to agree. That's very well-said.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-ideas/attachments/20090521/0c9dd513/attachment.html>