Re: [PATCH] add a trivial patch style checker

Julio M. Merino Vidal
2007-05-29T16:21:23Z

On 29/05/2007, at 18:12, Joel Schopp wrote:

>>>> + if(!($prevline=~/\/\*\*/) && length($lineforcounting) > 80){
>>> Actually, I think this should be "> 79" (after stripping a .diff's
>>> control column), since the cursor may move to the 81th column when
>>> editing an 80-col line - which is what we want to avoid, no?
>> 80 tends to work for me because of that "if on 80 then don't wrap
>> until
>> there is another character" behaviour of most terminals. Anyone else
>> with a firm opinion.
>
> I think 80 is good. What the specific number is does not matter
> much, we all have screens wider than 80 characters. The point is
> just to have a number that prevents really long lines and prevents
> people from indenting too many levels past our minds ability to
> keep up. We've already all been coding to 80, and it happens to be
> a nice round number we can all remember and love. The only reason
> I see to select 79 is that prime numbers are generally cooler than
> other numbers.

We do have screens wider than 80 characters, but almost all the time
I spend in terminal windows, they are set to 24x80 (the default
size). It is a matter of habit, and I bet I'm not alone. Hence, 80
is "annoying" not only because patches will wrap, but also because in
some editors the 80th character will also wrap.

Just my 2 cents,

--
Julio M. Merino Vidal <jmerino@ac.upc.edu>