Why wrap @ 80?

[Rob Sutherland]

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:49:42 -0400
JoeHill <joehill-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 11:28:41 -0400
> Noah John Gellner disseminated the following:
> 
> > Why do we wrap text at 80 columns on TLUG, and elsewhere on the Net for
> > that matter? I know that if your mailreader doesn't autowrap it can be
> > unpleasant to read, but don't the vast majority of readers wrap? The
> > advantage of not wrapping is that fwds, replies, and follow-ups don't
> > get funky formatting due to the hard carriage returns. 
> 
> From what I understand, it's for people who don't use a GUI at all, they read
> their mail in text mode with Mutt or Pine.
> 
> Remember, a community is judged by how it treats the least of its members :-)

Hooo boy, am I dating myself. Yep, that's right, 80 columns or less is built 
into a *lot* of older stuff. It would be nice if there was some standard way 
for all readers and backend processes to handle formatting, but we're not there
yet :-(

It's quite fascinating how that 80 column limit still hangs around. It started on 
punch cards, then the first terminals used it because they were mainly used to enter 
data to programs that expected card images and it just keeps lurking :-)

Rob 
-- 
Rob Sutherland - rob-HoWcdTCbwWKHoZZAE0nKLw at public.gmane.org
Computer Support at http://www.cheapersafer.com
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