On 80 columns should (not) be enough for everyone

[Walter Bright]

Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
> 80 columns
> wasn't determined by some scientific method to be a good size for code, it's
> a product of limitations of the older generation hardware.

80 columns came from how many characters would fit on a standard size 8.5*11 
sheet of paper. Even punch cards followed this precedent.

That paper size has stood the test of time as being a comfortable size for 
reading. Reading longer lines is fatiguing, as when one's eyes "carriage return" 
they tend to go awry.

You can see this yourself if you resize and reflow a text web site to be 
significantly wider than 80 columns. It gets harder to read.