[Python-ideas] 80 character line width vs. something wider

[Ron Adam]

Aahz wrote:
> On Thu, May 21, 2009, Raymond Hettinger wrote:
>> Aahz:
>>> Could you explain why you have so much emotion invested in this issue?
>> I'm mostly having light-hearted fun with it.  The conversation wasn't
>> going anywhere from the start.  I do find it funny that so many
>> think 80 is exactly the right number regardless of other whitespace
>> conventions or regardless of the language being used.
> 
> If that's what you think people are saying, I don't think you are using
> sufficient care in your reading.  It seems to me that people are mostly
> saying that eighty columns is enough for many purposes, there are
> problems that would come from increasing the number of columns, and there
> aren't any solid arguments that clearly demonstrate that the gains
> outweigh the detriments.

Well, on Ubuntu I use the gnome terminal which has line width settings of 
80 and 132.  It doesn't have any settings in-between.  So I use 80X24 
because it gives me plenty of room to see other windows.

Possibly if there was a 100 character width, I might use it.  The 132 
character width setting takes up too much horizontal room on my desktop.


I found that if I use small font sizes, I tend to lean closer to the 
monitor than I should and that causes my neck and back to ache if I'm at my 
computer for longer than a few hours.  So although I can reduce the font 
size and get a lot more characters across the screen, it is better for my 
health if I don't do that.

Cheers,
    Ron