Why should text files end with a newline?

Question

I assume everyone here is familiar with the adage that all text files should end with a newline. I\'ve known of this \"rule\" for years but I\'ve always wondered — why?

Answer 1

Some tools expect this. For example, wc expects this:

$ echo -n "Line not ending in a new line" | wc -l
0
$ echo "Line ending with a new line" | wc -l
1