On Sun, 7 Jun 2015 04:40:47 +0000 (UTC) Duncan wrote:
> Andrew Savchenko posted on Sat, 06 Jun 2015 20:36:13 +0300 as excerpted:
> 
> > On Sat, 06 Jun 2015 18:35:41 +0600 Vadim A. Misbakh-Soloviov wrote:
> >> > * linewidth >> 80 (why do we have this short limit still in 2015)
> >> 
> >> Actually, I dislike that too, but the reason is simple: some people
> >> still using text-mode terminals.
> >> 
> >> // It would be nice to finally fix that, but let's be realistic: it
> >> looks like it wouldn't be finished in the near 10 years :-/
> >  
> > It will never be finished, because console-based workflow is the most
> > efficient way to work for many people, especially for advanced
> > users/devs.
> 
> Well, yes, but vgacon is rather dated, now.  More folks are using high 
> resolution framebuffer console mode all the time, and with monitors 
> standardizing on 1920x1080 due to HDTV, well... my console mode is 320 
> columns x 108 lines, now, and 80 chars... is just scrunched up on the 
> left quarter of the screen![1]
> 
> Of course there's split-screen too, tho I think many are like me and 
> simply startx and run terminal windows if they want split-screen, so 
> haven't bothered configuring it at the frame-buffer console, but again, 
> even that's 160 width, over 100 width if 3-way-vert-split, and still 80 
> width at 4-way-vert-split, which is getting a bit ridiculous.
> 
> So console-based workflow isn't so much of an excuse for 80-char lines, 
> these days.  Of course lines can be /too/ long.  There's a reason 
> newspapers and the like use multi-column printing, after all.  But 120 
> char isn't too bad, and I expect most would find at least 100 char an 
> improvement over 80, which really begins to feel like the old 40-char 
> widths at some point.

You missed my point completely. 80 chars limit comes not from the
console width, but from the text readability[1]. It doesn't matter
how wide one's physical monitor is. Text of 300 characters width
will be barely readable.

Of course if a code have large left indents for inner blocks, such
code may exceed 80-chars barrier, but without left whitespace it
should be within limits. Of course there are various exceptions like
comments and so on. But as a rule of thumb too wide lines are not
readable because eyes shift during line read is way too large.

60-80 chars limit comes from the science, not from the console
width. Actually I suspect that console width was selected that way
due to readability issues.

[1] http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

Best regards,
Andrew Savchenko