Why is the Windows cmd.exe limited to 80 characters wide?

Question

I love stretching my terminal on unix. What is the history or reason behind windows lame command line?

Answer 1

I don't know the history behind it, but this wishlist item from the author of PuTTy is an interesting post that explains the technical hurdles involved with any type of cmd.exe replacement that isn't lame:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/wishlist/win-command-prompt.html

You don't mention that you're looking for a replacement, but if so you might also check out some of the cmd.exe replacements like Console 2 or JP Software's Take Command etc. I've also had some good experiences with PuTTy-Cyg which lets you use PuTTy as a cygwin shell.