I find the "semantic newlines" standard which we have been attempting to
enforce for documentation a constant source of annoyance.
Ostensibly, the purpose of using semantic newlines is to reduce the size of
diffs. However, given that we have oceans of documentation _not_ using this
style, we are unlikely to reap that benefit any time soon. Also, unlike code,
documentation rarely needs small spot fixes; a fix to a document should result
in changes elsewhere within the sentence or paragraph.
In pursuit of this questionable benefit, we have to accept the following
annoyances:
It's inconsistent with pretty much every other Sphinx project out there.
Python lays out an 80-column maximum for Sphinx documents, the same as code:
https://docs.python.org/devguide/documenting.html#use-of-whitespace
<https://docs.python.org/devguide/documenting.html#use-of-whitespace> and an
inspection of pretty much every other Sphinx project out there shows this style
is consistently followed.
It's inconsistent with the coding standard and requires special explanation in
the docs. I was prompted to write this message by attempting to review
<https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ticket/7786
<https://twistedmatrix.com/trac/ticket/7786>>.
It requires special editor configuration. ReST mode in emacs, vim, and sublime
text expect to wrap paragraphs at 80 characters and keeping the semantic
newlines where they're supposed to be has no tool support and involves avoiding
other bits of tool support around re-flowing. It also looks bad in an editor,
with a ragged right edge.
It looks bad in online code browsers; long sentences horizontally scroll or
wrap.
I think this style might have made sense ago 10 years ago in HTML, but with
present-day RST it seems to go strongly against the grain.
Would anyone else like to make our documentation style-guide more harmonious
with existing standards? Anyone opposed?
Thanks,
-glyph
_______________________________________________
Twisted-Python mailing list
Twisted-Python@twistedmatrix.com
http://twistedmatrix.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twisted-python
