About the 79 character line recommendation

[sjdevnull at yahoo.com]

Olivier Langlois wrote:
> There was a coding standard where I worked and the intention behind this
> requirement was to make the code printer friendly. Printing code source
> with lines longer than 80 chars greatly hinder readability on paper.
>

I don't think I've ever seen Python code printed out other than in
books.  Indeed, I don't think I've seen anyone print their code in any
language in a decade--it's much easier to read online with tags, class
browsers, easy access to version history, etc.

The 79-column limit is a hard rule most places I've worked, because
pretty much all code is going to wind up with someone looking at it on
an 80-column terminal at some point.