Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.
tinnews at isbd.co.uk
tinnews at isbd.co.uk
Mon Jul 18 05:49:00 EDT 2011
Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> 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.
>
The reason for an 80 column limit is not fundamentally down to screen
width (as was) it's that our eyes find it much easier to follow lines
with a limited length and 80 columns is somewhere around the right
line length to keep things easily readable.
--
Chris Green
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