[TUHS] 80 columns ...

[Jon Steinhart]

Toby Thain writes:
> Just don't move on without some limit. There are real
> cognitive/typographic reasons why excessively long lines hurt
> comprehension. This is why both 500 year old books and 5 month old books
> have narrow measures.
> 
> 80 might be too narrow for most, but at some point beyond 132 is "too
> far". :)

Well, I would claim that books have technological limitations that are
different than computer monitors.  It's a matter of doing what's appropriate
instead of taking a dogmatic approach.

I will point out that while it's sometimes a pain, the reader/writer ratio
is a major driving force.  I save on typing and use very terse code when
writing stuff for myself.  But, when writing stuff where there are many
readers I feel that it's my job to put in the extra work to make it more
accessible to the reader, partly because I don't want the readers bugging me.

Jon