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Comment by yesimahuman | Hacker News Reader

The one issue I have is with the PEP 8 camel case reference. I can see the value of everyone keeping the same style while coding, but at the same time who says that style is the best? In terms of "expecting" that style when using other's libraries, you still have to read the docs for library to understand how to use it, so I don't see the ultimate value.

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I disagree, as a rubyist I find it really useful that everyone uses underscores.

Language-wide style conventions make it easier to remember methods and classes since remembering a method like each_with_index as a phrase is easy, attaching a piece of useless data unrelated to what it does like Camel Case vs underscore is harder.

From PEP 8:

    But most importantly: know when to be inconsistent -- sometimes the style guide just doesn't apply. When in doubt, use your best judgment.

Settling on language-wide naming conventions reduces cognitive dissonance. Naming conventions don't supplant reading library docs, but they support it. In any case, you have to pick something, and some people will always be dissatisfied.

The answer to any "who says" question about Python is "Guido van Rossum says". (In the case of PEP 8, Barry Warsaw says as well.)

I agree, but I don't agree that deviating from PEP 8 in terms of naming makes one a bad python programmer. I've seen so many deviations of these rules in libraries that if I were to expect a certain style I would be more frustrated than I am.

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