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From: Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>
To: emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: master 72b1379f079: Increase `emacs-lisp-docstring-fill-column` to 72
Date: Sat, 03 Feb 2024 11:06:25 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87o7cx7tge.fsf@dataswamp.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 875xz5nb2h.fsf@yahoo.com

Po Lu wrote:

> Whether that is true or not, raising the limit by 8
> characters creates very little improvement

The improvement is 8 chars or 12.5%.

Compare a 64 char line to a 72 ditto by looking at these bars:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> in all of these respects. Even the worst of modern displays
> can guarantee Emacs 80 columns of space, so it is not
> a convincing compromise, and cannot be described except as
> an arbitrary choice.

80 is the IBM punchcard standard, 72 is the US teletypewriter.

See the Wikipedia page on CPL [1] - it mentions 72 four times,
including

  Many plain text documents still conform to 72 CPL out of
  tradition (e.g., RFC 678).

The RFC document refered to mentions 72 three times, including

  A [...] page is [...] 72 characters wide

> Consistency is a far cry from an end in itself, and the only
> ends here are aesthetic in nature.

Incorrect, 72 is obeying tradition and in practice 8 more
chars helps.

Indeed, the word "practice" is exactly 8 chars. If one
imagines a doc string that is 10 lines, that is 80 more chars.

Whatever one does hands on, any sudden improvement of over
a tenth is guaranteed to be experienced immediately.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_per_line

[2] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc678

-- 
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal




  reply	other threads:[~2024-02-03 10:06 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 41+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
     [not found] <170687730547.552.9673193819426474611@vcs2.savannah.gnu.org>
     [not found] ` <20240202123506.0CEC7C0EFF5@vcs2.savannah.gnu.org>
2024-02-02 14:02   ` master 72b1379f079: Increase `emacs-lisp-docstring-fill-column` to 72 Po Lu
2024-02-02 14:23     ` Stefan Kangas
2024-02-03  3:00       ` Po Lu
2024-02-03  3:09         ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03  7:43           ` Po Lu
2024-02-03  8:02             ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03  8:53             ` Eli Zaretskii
2024-02-03  9:45               ` Po Lu
2024-02-03 10:33                 ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 11:18                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2024-02-03  9:48               ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 11:23                 ` Eli Zaretskii
2024-02-03 11:57                   ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 12:17                     ` Eli Zaretskii
2024-02-03 12:37                       ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03  8:04         ` Adam Porter
2024-02-03  8:25           ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03  9:36           ` Po Lu
2024-02-03 10:06             ` Emanuel Berg [this message]
2024-02-03 10:28             ` Adam Porter
2024-02-03 10:45               ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 11:04               ` Po Lu
2024-02-03 11:17                 ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 11:45                 ` Adam Porter
2024-02-03 12:34                   ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-04  4:44                     ` Richard Stallman
2024-02-04  5:17                       ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-07  3:12                         ` Richard Stallman
2024-02-03 11:13               ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 13:43               ` Eric S Fraga
2024-02-03 21:56             ` Stefan Kangas
2024-02-03  8:31         ` Eli Zaretskii
2024-02-03 10:02           ` Po Lu
2024-02-03 10:16             ` Alfred M. Szmidt
2024-02-03 11:20             ` Eli Zaretskii
2024-02-03 12:12               ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-03 21:47         ` Stefan Kangas
2024-02-03 23:14           ` Po Lu
2024-02-04  1:28             ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-04  1:25           ` Emanuel Berg
2024-02-02 14:35     ` Emanuel Berg

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