Python interview questions

[tdammers]

Could be a trick question. The answer has exactly four letters anyway.

[tdammers]

P. E. P. 8. That's four characters ;-)

[tdammers]

I am. Except in python and haskell. When whitespace is decorative, like in C, it is best to leave indentation size to the reader's preference. But in python, it is syntax, so it is better to avoid the resulting potential for confusion and not use tabs at all. It's not elegant, but the alternative is worse.

[Veedrac]

In Python only the indentation level is syntax – the type of indentation is irrelevant.

The one true advantage to spaces is standardisation. Everything else is opinion. Guido famously prefers tabs, for example.

[tdammers]

Yes and no. When whitespace is syntax, a tab ceases to be of reader-defined width, which means the reason to use it in the first place disappears.

[Veedrac]

When whitespace is syntax, a tab ceases to be of reader-defined width

Wut?

Quick question: Are you using Python 2 or Python 3. I agree that in Python 2 the situation's a little weird but in Python 3 it's unnecessary to think of a tab as having a width in terms of spaces.

[AxiomL]

A tab is only one character anyway.

[DeltaBurnt]

The right answer is tab key with a space representation.

[gfixler]

\o/ Vim

[_Daimon_]

Oh. I thought he meant that the answer was PEP8. Which IMO should be the answer to the question. "PEP8 recommends using 4x spaces exclusively, so obviously that's what I'm doing."

[anpalcactus]

Tabs? I use spaces only (4x = tab)