Re: [TUHS] The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature

[Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com>]

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Clem,

It figures. I should have known there was a reason for the shorter lines 
other than display. Conventions are sticky and there appears to be a 
generation gap. I use single spaces between sentences, but my ancestors 
used 2... who knows why? :).

Will

On 11/6/20 9:07 AM, Clem Cole wrote:
> Will, I do still the same thing, but the reason for 72 for email being 
> that way is still card-based.  In FORTRAN the first column defines if 
> the card is new (a blank), a comment (a capital C), no zero a 
> 'continuation' of the last card.  But column 73-80 were 'special' and 
> used to store sequence #s (this was handy when you dropped your card 
> deck, card sorters could put it back into canonical order).  So 
> characters in those columns were typically ignored.   Thus when "Model 
> 28 ASR" (a.k.a. ASR-28) created it had 72 columns. It's interesting 
> that when its follow on the Model 33 was created, it actually had 74, 
> but most SW configured it to 72 [search for a manual on bit savers or 
> the like if you want the details].
>
> IIRC, the original DEC 'Glass TTY' - the VT-05 was 72, but later 
> terminals like the VT-52 were 80 columns, as was the ADM 3A.
>
> The one thing I will give the 'tyranny of 80-columns" is when I look 
> at code it starts to break that line size by a lot, I often think that 
> is a bell-weather of something that needs to be rewritten and 
> simplified, and/or the abstraction might not be right.   Like, 
> most/many rules there >>are<< often break exceptions, but when I do 
> look code with really long lines, I admit I am suspect.
>
>
> Clem
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2020 at 8:21 AM Will Senn <will.senn@gmail.com 
> <mailto:will.senn@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 11/6/20 12:34 AM, Rob Pike wrote:
>     >
>     https://github.com/golang/go/commit/a625b919163e76c391f2865d1f956c0f16d90f83
>     <https://github.com/golang/go/commit/a625b919163e76c391f2865d1f956c0f16d90f83>
>
>     >
>     <https://github.com/golang/go/commit/a625b919163e76c391f2865d1f956c0f16d90f83
>     <https://github.com/golang/go/commit/a625b919163e76c391f2865d1f956c0f16d90f83>>
>     Hilarious. I use fixed font - Monaco 14. But, 80 columns? not on your
>     life. I hate wrapped text output, if I can avoid it. That said, I
>     set my
>     soft word wrap in the text editor at 72 :). My convention comes from
>     early email though, not punched cards.
>
>     Will
>
>     -- 
>     GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462  7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF
>


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