Maintaining Maximum Line Length When Using Tabs Instead of Spaces?

[Dave Angel]

On 12/08/2014 03:20 PM, sohcahtoa82 at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>
> On Sunday, December 7, 2014 6:26:01 PM UTC-8, jtan wrote:
>> One reason why you would want max length 79 is because of working with terminals.  Maybe ssh to you server and check how many spaces are consumed by a tab?  In my boxes, it is usually 1 tab = 8 spaces.  So perhaps just use that setting in your editor?
>
>
> My terminals are 120 columns wide.
>
> Are there still people that are limiting their terminals to 80 columns?  If so, why?

I frequently have more than just one terminal open on my xserver.  I 
might have several terminals, or I might also have a browser or another 
application.  And I rearrange the windows so the parts I'm interested in 
are showing whatever I'd like to simultaneously see.

>  I mean, I can understand if you're running on an ancient square monitor,
>  but I see no reason to limit your terminal to 80 columns if you're running any sort of window environment on monitor with a horizontal resolution greater than 1280.

What's square got to do with anything?  I have displays ranging from 
about 3 inches across to about 29.  The size matters, not usually the 
pixel count (my cell phone has 1920 pixels across).

>
> "Because that's how we've always done it!" is a pretty **** reason to continue doing something.
>
No need to throw feces around.  There are several reasons besides history.

1) physical screen size, divided by the number of simultaneous windows 
one wants horizontally visible.

2) vision acuity.  When the print gets small enough, my elderly eyes 
can't read it reliably.

3) Human preference and ability.  Notice that large books and newspapers 
use multiple columns, or pictures & ads to break up the page.  A line 
beyond some length makes it hard to take it all in at once.

4) Other media.  Sometimes we actually make listings on paper.

If code is only going to be used by one person, then it may make sense 
for that person to make it as wide as the size he personally can handle, 
with his abilities and equipment and usage habits.

But when there are multiple people, it sometimes makes sense to 
constrain code to the most stringent of their abilities.

And one's abilities change over time, just as his equipment does.

-- 
DaveA