Falsehoods People Believe about PEP 8 (was: Guido sees the light: PEP 8 updated)

[Ben Finney]

Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> writes:

> Maybe we need a blog post "Falsehoods Programmers Believe About PEP
> 8", along the lines of the ones about time and names.

Great suggestion. (Do you have a blog on which you could post an article
like this?)

> Remember, every one of these is false.
>
> * All Python code should follow PEP 8.
>
> * If you use a tool named pep8, your code will be PEP 8 compliant.
>
> * If your code is PEP 8 compliant, a tool named pep8 will accept it.
>
> * The Python Standard Library is PEP 8 compliant.
>
> * Okay, at least the new parts of the standard library are PEP 8
>   compliant.
>
> * PEP 8 compliant code is inherently better than non-compliant code.
>
> * PEP8-ing existing code will improve it.
>
> * Once code is PEP 8 compliant, it can easily be kept that way through
>   subsequent edits.
>
> * PEP 8 never changes.
>
> * Well, it never materially changes.
>
> * I mean, new advice, sure, but it'll never actually go back on a
>   rule.

* The line length limit is obsolete in an age of high-resolution
  displays.

* Okay, but if you disregard side-by-side windows, lines of code can be
  arbitrarily long without hurting readability.

* Well, maybe not several hundred characters, but surely 120 characters
  of code on a line is easy enough to read.

* The only valid white space is line breaks and U+0020 SPACE.

* Okay, U+0009 TAB when lining up columns, but no other white space.

* Oh, come on, no-one would use U+000C FORM FEED in source code.

-- 
 \       “The apparent lesson of the Inquisition is that insistence on |
  `\         uniformity of belief is fatal to intellectual, moral, and |
_o__)    spiritual health.” —_The Uses Of The Past_, Herbert J. Muller |
Ben Finney