Why 80 ?

I've come across this number , never knew why

I'd say it's mostly because of legacy standards plus the fact that 80 columns, on average resolution, is good enough to read (counting on the fact that there will be sufficient whitespace among the 80 columns)

My goal is usually to be able to see a 3-way diff, 80 characters is fairly universal for that, although I think 100 is probably fine on modern hidpi displays.

anecdotally, on my thinkpad, using i3 and tmux for maximum screen real estate, i have enough room for 2 columns taking up 50% of my screen, and when i have vim open on either side, 80 characters is almost exactly the limit before text wraps onto the next line

Ah I see . The tmux or vim screen dual split for me is 74 columns (my laptop screen is 11inch) . It must be difficult to adopt for a team project if everyone isn't using the same hardware . It was cool to know why 80 columns though ☺️

i try not to get too upset when my coworkers commit code with longer lines. i can't expect everyone to care about the size of my laptop screen 😄

11" is really small!

Haha yeah . It's like a toy .