Maintaining Maximum Line Length When Using Tabs Instead of Spaces?

[Jean-Michel Pichavant]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Aahan Krish" <krish at aahan.me>
> To: python-list at python.org
> Sent: Monday, 8 December, 2014 3:15:43 AM
> Subject: Maintaining Maximum Line Length When Using Tabs Instead of Spaces?
> 
> My understanding from talking to different people is that many do use
> tabs (instead of spaces) for indentation in their code.
> 
> My question is to them (because I want to use tabs too) is: how do
> you
> maintain a line-length of 79 characters?
> 
> E.g. scenario: The tab setting in your editor could be 2 or 4, and in
> other developer's browser it could be 8. The code will be longer than
> 79 chars in the latter's editor.
> 
> I want to know if it's at all possible or if you use some simple and
> realistic (practical) hacks.
> 
> *PS: Please avoid, "That's why you should use spaces," type of
> comments. I would like to avoid flame wars.*
> 
> TY,
> Aahan

You simply need to define the standard width for you tab display. 4 is very common.

Those in your team who want to use a different display (3 flowers for instance) can, but they'll have to deal with the 79 limit by themselves which can be tricky.
Note that the 79 limit is a legacy value from the time where code was developed in 80 characters terminals with names not exceeding 8 characters (by convention).

Given the number of monitors you have and their width, you may extend this limit. For instance, I can easily make a 3 files merge with 160 chars per line without problem.
Considering the current state of most developer hardware, a limit around 100 char per line is most of the time a better choice.

Remember that breaking a line of 81 characters often leads to readability issue for no (modern) reason.


JM






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