beepboop
Why was 98 chosen as the magic number? I can’t find any reference or explanation for it. Usually I see 80, 100 or 120 as the preferred line lengths in other languages.
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josevalim
The formatter breaks when it is possible to find a break. This is usually always possible but in many cases it cannot, such as a large double quoted string.
Another common scenario is with “do”. If all you have after the line limit is “do”, then there is no opportunity for a break before, so we effectively go line_length+2. Making it 98 means this common case fits exactly 100.
beepboop
Thanks for the answer :)! There is always a space before “do” as well though - was it a conscious decision to prefer 98 over 97?
BartOtten
Just for a moment I thought this topic was an April’s Fool joke
Being serious doen’t take the smile away. Thanks both of you
josevalim
We may break in that space, or maybe we did originally. I am not a 100% sure of the current behaviour without checking.
beepboop
I did a couple of manual tests earlier and found that I can create a line with a length of 101, if the formatter is set to
line_length: 98. With the setting at 97, it breaks cleanly at 100. Not that it matters much.