[RFC] Characters per line: from punch card (80) to line printer (132)

[Florian Weimer]

* Paul Koning:

> That's certainly a general rule.  There is a reason why books aren't
> wide, and why newspapers have columns.  The eye can't deal well with
> long lines.  So while 132 column lines are certainly possible with
> modern computers, it doesn't mean they are desirable.

If the line starts at column 40 or so, I don't think readability suffers
too much if it goes to column 100.  If it starts at column 2, then it
might be problematic.

Frequent long lines reduce the usefulness of side-by-side diff viewers.

And there are those of us who use screens in portrait mode, following
the rule that a good function is not longer than a single screen.  1080
pixels give you 8 pixels per character, which isn't that much.

Thanks,
Florian