Will, I do
still the same thing, but the reason for 72 for email being
that way is still card-based. In FORTRAN the first column
defines if the card is new (a blank), a comment (a capital C),
no zero a 'continuation' of the last card. But column 73-80
were 'special' and used to store sequence #s (this was handy
when you dropped your card deck, card sorters could put it
back into canonical order). So characters in those columns
were typically ignored. Thus when "Model
28 ASR" (a.k.a. ASR-28) created it had 72 columns.
It's interesting that when its follow on the Model 33 was
created, it actually had 74, but most SW configured it to 72
[search for a manual on bit savers or the like if you want the
details].
IIRC, the
original DEC 'Glass TTY' - the VT-05 was 72, but later
terminals like the VT-52 were 80 columns, as was the ADM 3A.
The one thing I
will give the 'tyranny of 80-columns" is when I look at code
it starts to break that line size by a lot, I often think that
is a bell-weather of something that needs to be rewritten and
simplified, and/or the abstraction might not be right. Like,
most/many rules there >>are<< often break
exceptions, but when I do look code with really long lines, I
admit I am suspect.
Clem