Comments on: python.CodingStyle().ishated = TRUE

By: Alastair

Alastair — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:15:35 +0000

IMHO all coding standards should have a clause that says:

“You should obey the coding standard.”

Along with another clause that says:

“You should obey the clause that tells you to obey the coding standard.”

Along with another clause that says:

“You should obey the clause that tells you to obey the clause that tells you to obey the coding standard.”

…

By: Julian

Julian — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:20:37 +0000

John is absolutely correct, which leaves me wondering how I managed to misread this once, in order to hate it, and again when I decided to complain about it. Whoops. Sorry, Mr. Rossum.

The first example given uses line-continuation characters where I would have used parentheses, so maybe that reinforced my incorrect reading of the previous paragraph.

By: John Y.

John Y. — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:12:53 +0000

Obviously, a lot of (most?) style decisions are subjective, and there are many places where there will be disagreement. Not surprisingly, I agree with some of your positions and disagree with others. But there is one point on which you’ve actually made a factual error:

Line continuation characters are preferred over brackets.

PEP 8 clearly states

The preferred way of wrapping long lines is by using Python’s implied line continuation inside parentheses, brackets and braces.

So if you and the other coders on the project have collectively agreed to adhere to all of PEP 8 where possible, then actually you should be avoiding line continuation characters in your own code.