Maintaining Maximum Line Length When Using Tabs Instead of Spaces?

[Dave Angel]

  To: sohcahtoa82 at gmail.com
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

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