[Python-ideas] 80 character line width vs. something wider
Ben Finney
ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Thu May 21 12:01:13 CEST 2009
Jeremiah Dodds <jeremiah.dodds at gmail.com>
writes:
> hmm, the 80-character convention does not stop me from unconsciously
> writing really complex list comprehensions, I just write them like so:
>
> def foo(f, a, b, c):
> return [[((f(x,y) * i, i) if i % 2 else 0)
> for i, x in enumerate(a)
> if f(y, x) == a + x]
> for y in [c(z) for z in range(a, a*b+c, c)]]
>
> not that that's really any better.
On the contrary, I find that *much* easier to grasp than the same
statement on a single line. You have been required, by choosing to
follow the 80-column limit, to choose points at which to break the line;
and have responded by breaking it up into conceptually discrete chunks
and indented to suggest the structure.
This example is, for me, a very convincing (anecdotal) demonstration of
why an 80-column limit is a good constraint to follow.
> But yeah, this is all anectodal evidence and personal taste, as
> Raymond points out.
Yet it's also more than that; to call it “personal taste” is to imply
that it's nothing more than aesthetics. If that's all it were, I'd care
far less for changes in convention.
I consider it rather more importantly a matter of software ergonomics,
which should therefore not be changed unless there's good supporting
evidence that the proposed change results in improvement.
--
\ “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the |
`\ value of nothing.” —Oscar Wilde |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
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