[petsc-dev] petsc4py doc problem

[Lisandro Dalcin]

On Wed, 28 Jun 2023 at 08:09, Barry Smith <bsmith at petsc.dev> wrote:

>
>   Generally, I like Python a great deal and think Python developers make
> good decisions, but their love of the 80-character limit is absurdly out of
> character and so fundamentally wrong.
>
>
The 79-character limit comes from PEP 8, which regulates code for the
Python project itself and their standard library.
At some point other people start following PEP 8 as if it were the ultimate
set of rules to be applied everywhere, but IMHO that was not the original
intention of PEP-8.
PEP-8 was written in 2001, at a time where diversity of opinion and
expression was way more valued and encouraged. Nowadays, folks seem to be
craving for centralized authorities producing common regulations for the
flock to follow blindly.

The NumPy docstring standard (
https://numpydoc.readthedocs.io/en/latest/format.html#docstring-standard)
says: The length of docstring lines should be kept to 75 characters to
facilitate reading the docstrings in text terminals.
I agree with the rationale, although I acknowledge that the 75-char limit
is subjective, i.e, people may feel perfectly comfortable reading longer
lines.

Many other projects have updated these limits to a more generous figures.
The `black` Python code autoformater suggests 88 chars
https://black.readthedocs.io/en/stable/the_black_code_style/current_style.html#line-length,
following recommendations from R. Hettinger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf-BqAjZb8M&t=260s, a very well respected
person in the Python community.

PETSc can very well increase the limit to anything you consider sensible,
as long as the agreed limit is somehow enforced, which is what Stefano just
implemented.

-- 
Lisandro Dalcin
============
Senior Research Scientist
Extreme Computing Research Center (ECRC)
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
http://ecrc.kaust.edu.sa/
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