On 80 columns should (not) be enough for everyone

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 01/30/2011 01:20 PM, Sean Kelly wrote:
> Walter Bright Wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> Print text doesn't have indentation levels though.

It does - bulleted and numbered lists, certain sidebars, block quotes.

> Assuming a 4 character indent, the smallest indentation level for
> code in a D member function is 8 characters.  Add a nested
> conditional and code is starting 16 characters in, which when wrapped
> at 80 characters begins to look like a newspaper column.

Newspaper columns are strongly optimized for being read quickly. Not a 
bad standard I guess.

I don't contend that your choice works for you, but I refute this 
particular rationalisation of it. Indentation should NOT be discounted 
as a participant to the maximum line width. If anything it adds 
overhead, not reduces it.


Andrei