Why Python and PEP to keep the rule

Why Python?

You can check out the blue line skyrocket. This is Python. I write code in C#, VB.NET, Javascript, Java, C++, and Python. When I write code in Python, I feel the grammar of Python doesn’t block my think flow and also easy to learn. Sometimes it gives me strange error because of strict indentation rule. But I have witnessed several times length comparison between C++ and Python. If both codes do the same thing then usually, Python is much shorter than C++. This makes me feel Python is easy.

//C++
#include <stdio>

using namespace std;

int main() {
    string name;
    cin >> name;
    cout << "Good evening, " << name << endl;
    return 0;
}

# Python
name = input()
print("Good evening, " + name)

The above codes in C++ and Python do the same thing. Getting a user input and printout the name with a good evening message.

We can check the big named company use Python; Google, Dropbox, Netflix, and Nasa.

Before coding

Before deep dive into programming directly, we’d better learn a coding style. Every day in my job, I spend more time to read codes than writing codes. A strong coding style makes it easy. Some languages officially have a coding style. Python has a PEP(Python Enhancement Proposal) coding style rule.

PEP8

The full name of PEP is Python Enhancement Proposal and here is a link for the original document.

If you use Pycharm, the editor is so powerful. It checks all the PEP8 rules and reports with waved underline. Here is a brief list of PEP8.

• Indent code using spaces instead of tabs
• Use four spaces for each indentation level
• Limit lines to 79 characters (72 for docstrings/comments)
• Separate functions and classes by two blank lines
• Within classes, separate methods by one blank line
• No spaces around function calls, indexes, keyword arguments

For limiting the lines to 79 characters, I’ve understood this rule is adapted because of screen size. But, this can also apply when I have to open diff tools. When you write on one screen and split it vertically, this rule has a big benefit because you don’t need to scroll horizontally.