Bingo. To quote Captain Jack Sparrow, style guides are "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules". They're not a substitute for common sense, and some

Bingo. To quote Captain Jack Sparrow, style guides are "more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules". They're not a substitute for common sense, and sometimes breaking the rules is for the greater good. I find the similar situations in shops that enforce strict naming conventions. edit: The other tip is that the 80 character limit is closely aligned to the optimal line length for regular reading: http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/3618/ideal-column-width-for-paragraphs-online http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/3618/ideal-column-widt... A bit more than normal is allowable for programming because of indentation and the more structured nature of the text.