File organization

   1 # -*- coding: UTF-8 -*-
   2 # Copyright (C) YEARS AUTHOR-NAME <AUTHOR-EMAIL>
   3 
   4 
   5 __author__ = "Rob Knight, Gavin Huttley, and Peter Maxwell"
   6 __copyright__ = "Copyright 2007, The Cogent Project"
   7 __credits__ = ["Rob Knight", "Peter Maxwell", "Gavin Huttley",
   8                     "Matthew Wakefield"]
   9 __license__ = "GPL"
  10 __version__ = "1.0.1"
  11 __maintainer__ = "Rob Knight"
  12 __email__ = "rob@spot.colorado.edu"
  13 __status__ = "Production"

Status should typically be one of "Prototype", "Development", or "Production". maintainer should be the person who will fix bugs and make improvements if imported. credits differs from author in that credits includes people who reported bug fixes, made suggestions, etc. but did not actually write the code.

Comments

Comments should be full sentences, end with a period. 

   1 def aLongFunction(x, y, z):
   2     # 2000 lines of code follow...
   3     return 1
   4 # end aLongFunction
   5

Abbreviations

alignment       aln
archaeal        arch
auxillary       aux
bacterial       bact
citation        cite
current         curr
database        db
dictionary      dict
directory       dir
end of file     eof
eukaryotic      euk
frequency       freq
expected        exp
index   idx
input   in
maximum         max
minimum         min
mitochondrial   mt
number  num
observed        obs
original        orig
output  out
phylogeny       phylo
previous        prev
protein         prot
record  rec
reference       ref
sequence        seq
standard deviation      stdev
statistics      stats
string  str
structure       struct
temporary       temp
taxonomic       tax
variance        var

and 

class cls
thread th
transaction txn
deferred dfd
format fmt
template tmpl
implementation impl
button btn_*
checkbox chk_*
middleware *_mw
callback cb
filename fn
file object f

re_ for regular expression strings.

rx_ for compiled regular expressions.

m for matches.

r for return values.

Function calls

Attempt to minimize vertical space, while not compromising readability. 

   1 result = someFunction(one, two,
   2                       three)

over 

   1 result = someFunction(
   2     one, two,
   3     three)

over 

   1 result = someFunction(
   2     one, two,
   3     three
   4 )

The latter is acceptable if line 1 or any of the arguments are long. E.g.: 

   1 result = someFunctionWithALongName(
   2     one, two,
   3     aLongThirdArgument
   4 )

ElementTrees/XML parsing

Use elem for unknown elements.

Prefix 'x' onto elements/trees. E.g. for <body> use xbody, <table> use xtable, etc.

From: http://self.maluke.com/style

Other resources