Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

[Roy Smith]

In article <mailman.1190.1310940173.1164.python-list at python.org>,
 Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com> wrote:

> the line width mandate [...] exists so that people using 80-column editors can open up
> code without having line-wrapping problems.

Heh.  I don't know how many other people on this group grew up with the 
original(*) 80-column editor (http://tinyurl.com/3sj4mzb), but I did.  
Unlike, well, any editor anybody is likely to use today, it was really, 
really hard to make the window wider if you had to.

We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my mind that 
we're still churning out people with 80 column minds.  I'm willing to 
entertain arguments about readability of long lines, but the idea that 
there's something magic about 80 columns is hogwash.

* Well, not really the original.  The 026 was essentially obsolete by 
the time I came around, but the 029 was pretty much just an 026 with a 
case mod and a nicer keyboard.