Common sense is 80 columns for prose, because anything longer makes it difficult to easily read from one line to the next.
Code, however, (a) does not fit into dense paragraphs, and (b) often comes with heavy indentation. I used to try and fit it into eighty columns, and ended up with the code more difficult to read, as a result. I'd say 132 columns is a reasonable optimum on this scale.
I don't have difficulty reading prose which is significantly wider than 80 characters, but I'm used to reading solid prose on a 1680x1050 screen with small fonts.
I disagree, but then my terminals and editors are typically around 140 columns wide.
Common sense is whatever is right for the project you're in. Some projects use tabs, define tabs to be eight characters, require 80 column limits, and complain when you use acronyms for your variable names because they're not clear enough.
Some projects you end up with huge lines like the example in the poll, and that sucks too.
Mostly I *try* to stick to around 80 columns, but I won't arbitrarily wrap something which would exceed that by less than 20 columns unless it doesn't affect readability to me.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-11 03:14 pm (UTC)Instead it should be "Common sense" wrt. line length IMO.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-11 03:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-11 04:35 pm (UTC)Code, however, (a) does not fit into dense paragraphs, and (b) often comes with heavy indentation. I used to try and fit it into eighty columns, and ended up with the code more difficult to read, as a result. I'd say 132 columns is a reasonable optimum on this scale.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-11 04:37 pm (UTC)If your code marches off the right of your screen then you're doing it wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 08:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-13 08:23 am (UTC)Common sense is whatever is right for the project you're in. Some projects use tabs, define tabs to be eight characters, require 80 column limits, and complain when you use acronyms for your variable names because they're not clear enough.
Some projects you end up with huge lines like the example in the poll, and that sucks too.
Mostly I *try* to stick to around 80 columns, but I won't arbitrarily wrap something which would exceed that by less than 20 columns unless it doesn't affect readability to me.