Re: What's the line length limit in the Emacs codebase?

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

>> There seem to be conflicting settings for the line length limit in the
>> Emacs codebase: .dir-locals.el sets fill-column to 70, but large areas
>> of the source code (including comments) seem to use 80. Can we pick
>> one value and use it consistently (for new/changed code)?
>
> 70 is it, we just don't necessarily enforce it religously.
>
> Where did you see significant deviations from that standard?

Indeed.  I'd say that we it's a kind of progressive limit:
- it's OK to have all lines ≤ 70-columns wide
- it's not OK to have most lines >70-columns
- we tolerate reaching the area between 70 and 80 columns every once in
  a while, tho.
- ≥80 columns OTOH should really be rare, limited to the exceptional
  cases where the alternative is really worse.


        Stefan