On Friday, May 16, 2014 3:51:27 AM UTC+5:30, Terry Reedy wrote: > On 5/15/2014 9:58 AM, Rustom Mody wrote: > > > > As far as I can see the votaries of the mystical 79 have yet to explain > > how/where it appeared from > > > > As has been explained before, and is implied in the PEP, 79 = 80 - 1. > 80 chars - 1 character width cursor leaves 79 non-cursor characters. > When <enter> is hit, the cursor replaced with \n. So you can think of 79 > as 79 visible + \n = 80. > > > > PEP 8 says "The limits are chosen to avoid wrapping in editors with the > window width set to 80," and goes on about dynamic wrapping or not. To > put is another way, all 80 char terminals work with 79 visible chars. > Some but not all work with 80 visible, and some work with 80 on all > lines except the last. > > > > I admit that this would have been clearer when most everyone reading it > would have had some experience with 80 char sceens (including DOS). > Still, did you really not notice that 79 = 80 - 1?
The claim being made is that 79/80 is a fundamental, cognitive limit and has no relation to technological changes. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
