Iain Hibbert wrote:

>
>>3) break long lines where possible.
>>    
>>
>
>Sure, there are some issues there but how long is too long in the modern
>world?  I use 160 char width xterm on ~5 year old laptop - 80 column
>terminals are surely a thing of the past?
>  
>
No, for several reasons:

    1) Lots of people don't want to start a GUI to work -- there are a
lot of 80 column consoles displays out there.  (And some folks still
work with actual terminals, though that is rare.)

    2) I work with 80 column emacs windows, and tend to pull up a bunch
of them side by side on my high res display.  This lets me maximize my
screen content.

    3) *Some* standard has to be defined, because 500 character lines
are not acceptable.  80 is a reasonable standard with historical precedent.

    4) If you need to make your lines that long, then it *might* be a
sign that your code needs to be restructured.  Deep nesting is a
frequent sign, and maybe pulling code out into functions or changing
your loop constructs might make it easier to read.  (More than about 3
levels of nesting is hard for others to follow, *especially* in big
functions.)

I hope that the 80 column standard stands.

-- 
Garrett D'Amore                          http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/
Sr. Staff Engineer          Extending the Power of 64-bit UNIX Computing
Tadpole Computer, Inc.                             Phone: (951) 325-2134