3 ms·

Grab a novel. I bet the line width is closer to 60 characters. Horizontal scanning is hard on the eyes.

• snprbob86 14y ago
  Luckily, most code is indented 1 to 4 levels at 2 or 4 spaces per indent. This means that typical code width is limited to be anywhere from 78 to 64 characters wide. That's 77 to 63 if you're actually going with 79 characters, which is what PEP8 et al suggest. Much closer to the 55 to 65 characters of the two or three books I just checked.
• kps 14y ago
  You're quite right. The ‘accident’ of 80 comes from the ability of a typewriter to space into what were usually margins.