[Python-ideas] 80 character line width vs. something wider

[Aahz]

On Thu, May 21, 2009, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
> Aahz:
>>
>> Could you explain why you have so much emotion invested in this issue?
>
> I'm mostly having light-hearted fun with it.  The conversation wasn't
> going anywhere from the start.  I do find it funny that so many
> think 80 is exactly the right number regardless of other whitespace
> conventions or regardless of the language being used.

If that's what you think people are saying, I don't think you are using
sufficient care in your reading.  It seems to me that people are mostly
saying that eighty columns is enough for many purposes, there are
problems that would come from increasing the number of columns, and there
aren't any solid arguments that clearly demonstrate that the gains
outweigh the detriments.

My take is that the people who claim that we would be having this exact
conversation if the standard were 100 characters are precisely correct.
There will always be people pushing longer lines, and there needs to be
better argumentation before we abandon the current standard.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
statesmen and philosophers and divines."  --Ralph Waldo Emerson