Re: Code Width and Comment Style (Was: What counts as a fork?)

[Paige DePol <lual@...>]

Pierre Chapuis <catwell@archlinux.us> wrote:

> For most languages, I use 80 columns, and never more than 120.
> 
> My main reason for this is that my sight is not very good, so I use
> large fonts. On a large monitor (I typically use a 27")  I can fit a
> text editor and a terminal side by side, on a 13" laptop I can fit
> one of those.
> 
> Moreover, I find it hard to follow the flow of a program when
> lines are too long, similar to prose (too much eye movement).
> I have had to work with some Objective-C code bases and I
> had a very hard time because of that (I ended up rewriting
> some parts in pseudo-code in comments for that reason).

As I get older I will probably have the same issue, I am already using a
font size a couple points higher than I used when I was younger. The nice
thing is that even though I wear glasses my focal point without them is
exactly my monitor distance... which is very convenient! :)

I guess I don't have a problem with longer lines and parsing the flow of
the code, but one thing I had not really considered was the ability to
place source and header files side-by-side... which I realise now I do
quite frequently when hacking Lua.

I do not worry about the terminal issue as I use a system-wide hotkey to
drop down a nice 132x45 character terminal whenever I need one... I have
even waited to upgrade my OS until the author updated the terminal software
to work with the update!


Dirk Laurie <dirk.laurie@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't distinguish between languages for code width.
> 
> I use an elastic 79. I.e. it's 80, but column 80 is blank unless I am
> stretching that particular line.
> Reasons for stretching:
> 1. String constants or comments that need single-line syntax.
> 2. Subjective feeling that it looks better in that case.

I have found that with ObjC it was just easier to go to 132 columns, but for
most everything else I do currently use 80 columns. I think with ObjC I also
felt it was a more modern[1] language so why not use a modern column width.

With your "elastic 79" setup, what is the maximum width you will go to when
you do decide to exceed 80 columns?

Lua seems to use a pretty hard 80 column rule with very few exceptions that
I have been able to find.

Thank you both for your feedback, it is appreciated! :)

~Paige

[1] I know that ObjC is not a new language, it just felt that way to me.