> The problem with overly wide lines is that it hurts readability because it's harder to find the next line when scanning your eyes from right back to left.
This is indeed why a large number of books and articles and papers opt for multiple-column formats.
Frequent line breaks also help better break up distinct pieces that warrant independent examination, much like how such breaks in poetry help isolate distinct thoughts. There are certainly cases where such a "thought" does indeed exceed that 80-line limit, but I've found that they are rare (though this obviously depends on the language; for example, in my day job my T-SQL code frequently exceeds that arbitrary limit, simply because it often takes more characters to express a "thought").
All that being said, I wouldn't impose this on an existing project. If Linux's standard is for 100-character lines, then that is the standard to which I'll adhere. For my own code, however, 80 characters is (language limitations notwithstanding) more than sufficient.
This is indeed why a large number of books and articles and papers opt for multiple-column formats.
Frequent line breaks also help better break up distinct pieces that warrant independent examination, much like how such breaks in poetry help isolate distinct thoughts. There are certainly cases where such a "thought" does indeed exceed that 80-line limit, but I've found that they are rare (though this obviously depends on the language; for example, in my day job my T-SQL code frequently exceeds that arbitrary limit, simply because it often takes more characters to express a "thought").
All that being said, I wouldn't impose this on an existing project. If Linux's standard is for 100-character lines, then that is the standard to which I'll adhere. For my own code, however, 80 characters is (language limitations notwithstanding) more than sufficient.