[Python-Dev] pep8 reasoning

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 1:28 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> On Apr 24, 2014 7:01 PM, "Chris Angelico" <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 11:40 AM, Allen Li <cyberdupo56 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > 2) If you're starting a new project, follow PEP8 (or the standards for
>> >    the language you're using) to preserve CONSISTENCY.
>>
>> Don't forget that PEP 8 is not the standard for the Python language,
>> only the Python stdlib.
>
> That is not true. It is mandatory for the stdlib, for other projects it is
> optional,  but still recommend.

Hmm. There've been a good few conversations on python-list where
people have been reminded that PEP 8 is *not* all that important for
other projects (beyond that it's an already-written style guide - when
you're starting a C project you can argue style guides for weeks, but
when you start a Python project you can just say "PEP 8" and skip the
bikeshedding), which I took to mean that it's on par with any other
style guide; but looking at it the other way, it can be seen as a
strong recommendation. I'm just not sure about the word "standard"
there - to me a standard is something that you MUST follow, like RFCs
for internet protocols.

But that's just a matter of terminology, I guess.

ChrisA