[Python-Dev] Two spaces or one?

[Barry Warsaw]

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On Jul 23, 2007, at 10:18 PM, Talin wrote:

> In PEP 9 there's a requirement that PEPs must follow the "emacs
> convention" of 2 spaces after a period. (I didn't know this was an  
> emacs
> convention, I thought it was a convention of people who used  
> typewriters.)
>
[...]
> So if we're not going to enforce the rule consistently (and it  
> seems as
> if we're not), can we then just remove it from PEP 9? I'm not saying
> that we should change the rule to one space, I'm suggesting that we  
> just
> drop the requirement and let people use whatever they prefer.

As an emacs dinosaur, I'd prefer to keep the recommendation, but I  
also acknowledge that the smaller mammals nipping at my heals will  
eventually take over the world.  I've recently had similar  
discussions in another community and I was actually kind of amazed to  
learn that auto-refilling of paragraphs itself was somewhat of an  
anachronism.

Emacs will probably go the way of the vinyl record (though the latter  
is seeing a resurgence lately :).  Changing "must" to "should" in PEP  
9 would encourage but not enforce consistency, and I think that would  
be fine.

- -Barry

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