On 80 columns should (not) be enough for everyone

[spir]

On 01/30/2011 07:27 PM, 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.

Code is no newspaper article. And newspaper articles are rarely multi-indented.

Denis
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