Is there a valid reason for enforcing a maximum width of 80 characters in a code file, this day and age? [closed]

Answer 1

The only thing I enforce to stay within 80 chars is my commenting.

Personally...I'm devoting all my brain power (what little there is) to coding right, it's a pain to have to go back and break everything up at the 80 char limit when I could be spending my time on the next function. Yes, Resharper could do it for me I suppose but then it freaks me out a little that a 3rd party product is making decisions on my code layout and changes it ("Please don't break my code into two lines HAL. HAL?").

That said, I do work on a fairly small team and all of our monitors are fairly large so worrying about what bothers my fellow programmers isn't a huge concern as far as that goes.

Seems though some languages encourage longer lines of code for the sake of more bang for the buck (short hand if then statements).

Answer 2

The other answers already summed things up nicely, but it is also worth considering when you might want to copy & paste some code into an email, or if not code then a diff.

That's a time when having a "max width" is useful.

Answer 3

I still think that the limit isn't limited on the visual part. Sure, the monitors and resolutions are big enough to show even more characters in one line nowadays, but does it increase the readability?

If the limit is really enforced it's also a good reason to re-think the code and not to put everything into one line. It's the same with indentation - if you need to much levels your code needs to be re-thought.

Answer 4

Printing a monospaced font at default sizes is (on A4 paper) 80 columns by 66 lines.

Answer 5

Yes, because even in this day and age, some of us are coding on terminals (ok, mostly terminal emulators), where the display can only display 80 chars. So, at least for the coding I do, I really appreciate the 80 char rule.

Answer 6

I'm diffing side-by-side all day long and I don't have a freakin' 22 inch monitor. I don't know if I ever will. This, of course, is of little interest to write-only programmers enjoying arrow-coding and 300-char lines.