PEP 8 and extraneous whitespace

[rantingrick]

On Jul 21, 1:46 pm, Andrew Berg <bahamutzero8... at gmail.com> wrote:
> [snip PGP noise!]
> On 2011.07.21 01:32 PM, Thomas Jollans wrote:
> So, the PEP says: do not align operators. End of story.
>
> I'm pretty sure that colons, commas and equals signs are not operators.

'au contraire mon frere'.

Colons in a dictionary are assignment operators! The colon tells
Python to assign a value to a key. Likewise for commas which separate
values in containers. And of all things; YES, an equals sign IS most
assuredly an assignment operator.

> [snip MORE PGP noise!]

Lining up columns the way you propose is a major headache; as has been
pointed out. And i find it much less readable myself. "Consistency is
the Key"; remember? Consistency is not just a singular term applied
only to intelligent agents; no! It can just as well apply to
"collective behavior" consistency.

The fact remains: the chances of scanning across an empty void and
finding the correct row diminish exponentially by the the width of
said void (amount of space between columns)