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Riddle me this, where did the magic 132 columns come from? I want to say it was fortran77 when extend source was added to let fortran files use 132 columns.
by eyegor 3y ago
Riddle me this, where did the magic 132 columns come from? I want to say it was fortran77 when extend source was added to let fortran files use 132 columns.
- kens 3y agoI investigated 132 columns in detail and wrote a blog post about it. It's complicated but essentially, 14 7/8" paper was a standard size going back to the IBM 402 tabulator in 1948, where it was used for 88-column output using a character spacing of 5/32". The IBM 1403 printer (1959) changed to 10 characters per inch, resulting in 132 columns on 14 7/8" paper. https://www.righto.com/2019/01/accounting-machines-ibm-1403-and-why.html https://www.righto.com/2019/01/accounting-machines-ibm-1403-...