79 chars or more?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:35:49 -0400, AK wrote:

> As monitors are getting bigger, is there a general change in opinion on
> the 79 chars limit in source files? I've experimented with 98 characters
> per line and I find it quite a bit more comfortable to work with that
> length, even though sometimes I have to edit files in 80 width
> terminals, it's still easier to adapt to some inconvenience when that
> happens than the other way around, since about 95% of time or more, I do
> use wider editor window or terminal.
> 
> Is going over 79 still a terrible thing to do?  -andrei

For your own code, you are free to do anything you like :)

But if you want to submit code to the Python standard library, you have 
to restrict lines to 79 characters. This is no different from any other 
project -- you need to stick to the project's coding conventions.


There are still good reasons to stick with 79 chars, even on large screen 
monitors. People with poor vision will appreciate being able to increase 
the font size. Others might like to have two windows side-by-side, each 
showing 79 characters. Some people don't have wide monitors.




-- 
Steven