[TUHS] The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature

[Adam Thornton]

I’m going to chime in on pro-80-columns here, because with the text a comfortable size to read (although this is getting less true as my eyes age), I can read an entire 80-column line without having to sweep my eyes back and forth.

I can’t, and never could, do that at 132.

As a consequence, I read much, much faster with 80-column-ish text blocks.

I also think there is something to the “UNIX is verbal” and “UNIX nerds tend to be polyglots often with a surprising amount of liberal arts background of one kind or another,” argument.  That may, however, merely be confirmation bias.

Adam