Re: Which code style do you prefer the most?

Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com> writes:

On 09.03.2025 20:18, Tim Rentsch wrote:
>

I often read code on 8.5 by 11 paper.  I find using that medium
gives me a wider focus, and lets me understand how code fits
together on a large scale, better than looking at code on a
display, even a very large one.

>
Oh, I wouldn't have expected that there's something here where I
can agree with you.  Or only disagree in that I'd prefer A4 format
(instead of US Letter).

A4 format is narrower than US letter, which strengthens the
argument for limiting to (around) 80 columns.

Though I wouldn't expect that many folks
still prefer (for a better overview) paper to displays.  More so
if we consider that common (e.g. 24") screens have an area that
even exceeds two A4 papers put side by side horizontally.
[other comparisons]

I don't think of paper as a replacement for an interactive display.
It offers advantages along some axes, disadvantages along others.
I think it's a mistake to exclude either one.

Having more than 80 columns per
line when using a paper medium makes the characters smaller, and
IME increases the amount of effort and energy needed when reading,
which consequently limits the amount of time I can spend reviewing
and understanding code.

>
It depends.  In cases where you're focusing on structure than on
details of content smaller fonts are advantageous.  In programming
there's a mixture of looking at contents and structure[*]. Here
the advantage of screens with a scalable font size beats paper;
you can adjust windows and fonts to fit actual necessities.  YMMV.
(And there's yet more useful functions available, like folding.)
>
[*] That's a difference to left-aligned, blocked prose text, BTW.

I'm talking about cases where reading the content is an important
part of the activity.  If what I'm interested in is an overview,
rather than the content, I would choose a different representation
than simply some sort of scaling of the original source text.

There are other reasons to want to limit
line lengths to something near 80 columns, but the effect of output
on standard paper media is one of the most compelling.

>
Back in the days when paper was more commonly used I often printed
source code with a2ps in its default mode, which was 2 print pages
side by side on a landscape A4 paper (with a scaling equivalent of
~71%); for 80-column programs that was fine - more columns would
result in extremely annoying line wrapping, which is actually the
primary reason for me to typically not use lines larger than these
80 columns (that a lot of devices, tools, programs, and standards
rely on).  That equally holds for displays and for output on paper!
>
One aspect when working together with others on the same source is
important to be aware of;  cleanly formatted 80-columns source code
can be trivially read by "anyone", but larger lines that wrap on
smaller devices (or on paper, if you like) is an unnecessary pain
for others;  I would even call it anti-social. :-)

I agree with the sentiment here.  People who say, for example, 120+
character lines are okay, are focused primarily on their own views
(both literally and figuratively) at the expense of others.