[Python-Dev] PEP 8 recommends short module names because FAT is still common today (was: PEP-8 wart... it recommends short names because of DOS) (original) (raw)

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Tue Oct 20 21:59:06 EDT 2015

"Gregory P. Smith" <greg at krypto.org> writes:

There haven't been computers with less than 80 character file or path name element length limits in wide use in decades... ;)

Not true, your computer will happily mount severely-limited filesystems. Indeed, I'd wager it has done so many times this year.

It is filesystems that limit the length of filesystem entries, and the FAT filesystem is still in very widespread use — on devices mounted by the computers you use today.

Yes, we have much better filesystems today, and your primary desktop computer will almost certainly use something better than FAT for its primary storage's filesystem.

That does not mean Python programmers should assume your computer will never mount a FAT filesystem (think small flash storage), nor that a program you run will never need to load Python modules from that filesystem.

You'd like FAT to go away forever? Great, me too. Now we need to convince all the vendors of every small storage device – USB thumb drives, network routers, all manner of single-purpose devices – to use modern filesystems instead.

Then, maybe after another human generation has come and gone, we can finally expect every filesystem, in every active device that might run any Python code, to be using something with a reasonably-large limit for filesystem entries.

Until then, the advice in PEP 8 to keep module names short is reasonable.

-- \ “The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in | `\ the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.” | o_) —Henry L. Mencken | Ben Finney

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