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Tabs -vs- Spaces: Tabs should have won.

tinnews at isbd.co.uk tinnews at isbd.co.uk
Mon Jul 18 05:49:00 EDT 2011 
Roy Smith <roy at panix.com> wrote:
> In article <mailman.1190.1310940173.1164.python-list at python.org>,
>  Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > the line width mandate [...] exists so that people using 80-column editors can open up
> > code without having line-wrapping problems.
> 
> Heh.  I don't know how many other people on this group grew up with the 
> original(*) 80-column editor (http://tinyurl.com/3sj4mzb), but I did.  
> Unlike, well, any editor anybody is likely to use today, it was really, 
> really hard to make the window wider if you had to.
> 
> We don't have that problem any more.  It truly boggles my mind that 
> we're still churning out people with 80 column minds.  I'm willing to 
> entertain arguments about readability of long lines, but the idea that 
> there's something magic about 80 columns is hogwash.
> 
The reason for an 80 column limit is not fundamentally down to screen
width (as was) it's that our eyes find it much easier to follow lines
with a limited length and 80 columns is somewhere around the right
line length to keep things easily readable.

-- 
Chris Green
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