## Code style
-_Black_ reformats entire files in place. Style configuration options are deliberately
-limited and rarely added. It doesn't take previous formatting into account, except for
-the magic trailing comma and preserving newlines. It doesn't reformat blocks that start
-with `# fmt: off` and end with `# fmt: on`, or lines that ends with `# fmt: skip`.
+_Black_ aims for consistency, generality, readability and reducing git diffs. Similar
+language constructs are formatted with similar rules. Style configuration options are
+deliberately limited and rarely added. Previous formatting is taken into account as
+little as possible, with rare exceptions like the magic trailing comma. The coding style
+used by _Black_ can be viewed as a strict subset of PEP 8.
+
+_Black_ reformats entire files in place. It doesn't reformat blocks that start with
+`# fmt: off` and end with `# fmt: on`, or lines that ends with `# fmt: skip`.
`# fmt: on/off` have to be on the same level of indentation. It also recognizes
[YAPF](https://github.com/google/yapf)'s block comments to the same effect, as a
courtesy for straddling code.
_Black_ ignores previous formatting and applies uniform horizontal and vertical
whitespace to your code. The rules for horizontal whitespace can be summarized as: do
-whatever makes `pycodestyle` happy. The coding style used by _Black_ can be viewed as a
-strict subset of PEP 8.
+whatever makes `pycodestyle` happy.
As for vertical whitespace, _Black_ tries to render one full expression or simple
statement per line. If this fits the allotted line length, great.
[PEP 8](https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#should-a-line-break-before-or-after-a-binary-operator)
style guide, which emphasizes that this approach improves readability.
+Almost all operators will be surrounded by single spaces, the only exceptions are unary
+operators (`+`, `-`, and `~`), and power operators when both operands are simple. For
+powers, an operand is considered simple if it's only a NAME, numeric CONSTANT, or
+attribute access (chained attribute access is allowed), with or without a preceding
+unary operator.
+
+```python
+# For example, these won't be surrounded by whitespace
+a = x**y
+b = config.base**5.2
+c = config.base**runtime.config.exponent
+d = 2**5
+e = 2**~5
+
+# ... but these will be surrounded by whitespace
+f = 2 ** get_exponent()
+g = get_x() ** get_y()
+h = config['base'] ** 2
+```
+
### Slices
PEP 8