RE: best to have max width of 79 or 80 in source code?

[Drew Adams]

> Many try to keep their source code to a max width of around 80.
> Someone recommended 79 for some reason but I can't remember why.
> Is it because you need to allow another column for newline?

79 is a prime choice. ;-)

Punched ("IBM") cards had 80 columns (actually, the original Hollerith cards had
45 columns - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_cards).

>From that, 80 became typical for max line length in code. In some languages,
such as Fortan, it was (still is?) a hard line limit (but statements could be
continued across multiple lines).

Newline at line end does not count as a column, BTW.