These things turn subjective pretty quickly. That, and, "this is the way most people do it, so just do it this way."
For example, when looking through someone elses code, if it does not have deep levels of nesting I prefer longer methods you can read like a script rather than having to jump around the place to see what is each method.
Likewise with the 80 character guideline in PEP. It can take a lot longer to find the closing brace if it is hidden in columns that look like a newspaper article.
Definitely. The PEP8 was actually revised 6 months ago[0]. Nothing crazy, but a bit more pragmatic.
>For code maintained exclusively or primarily by a team that can reach agreement on this issue, it is okay to increase the nominal line length from 80 to 100 characters (effectively increasing the maximum length to 99 characters)
0: text: http://legacy.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#maximum-line-len...
Compare:
def makeMove(self, target):
enemy_piece = target.piece
if enemy_piece:
self.takeEnemyPiece(enemy_piece)
target.piece = self
self.position = target
def changeCoords(self, foo):
if foo.standing_on_it:
self.nowItsMine(foo.standing_on_it)
foo.standing_on_it = self
self.coords = foo