Reading vertically is much faster than reading horizontally, so I think 80 is a good soft limit. In some contexts it's hard to not go over it sometimes, e.g. in Java where it's not uncommon with very long type and method names.

Functional code is more chained and need more space often. Descriptive names are better; tends to be longer. Buy ultrawide.

80 is for aholes who like to use small laptop and then force it on everyone else. 120/150 is reasonable.

200 is great.

Yep.

And the laptop excuse is not even valid, I used a 11" MacBook Air for 10 years and even back then 80 always felt extremely limiting for me.

I just tested and: even when zooming +1 on VSCode and leaving the minimap open I can fit 140 chars without any horizontal scroll.

People demanding 80 columns always have some crazy setups, like an IDE where the editor is just a minuscule square in the centre, like an Osbourne 1 computer.

And 140 chars aren't enough for two files side by side with 80 chars. With a readable font size and a narrow font about 90 chars is a good limit on a 14" laptop screen. Coincidentally that same limit then allows for three files side by side on the average desktop screen - or a browser window at the side for reference.

If you can live with a single file on screen that's great, but the utility of two is far greater than having a chunk of the screen empty most of the time because of a few long lines.

If you do important work frequently on 14" screen and 2 files side-by-side (regardless of its resolution), then you are seriously self-limiting yourself and your efficiency, plus hurting your eyes which will inevitably bring regrets later. That's not how 'love for the craft' or ie efficiency looks like.

One reason I like longer lines, in those very few cases (way less than 1% of code lines) - it bundles logically several easy-to-read things, ie more complex 'if' or larger constructors. We talk about Java here just to be clear, for more compact languages those numbers can get lower significantly but same principles apply.

Doing overly smart complex one-liners just for the sake of it goes completely against what we write here, I've seen only (otherwise smart) juniors do those. Harder to debug, harder to read, simply a junior show-off move.

If you need two files on the screen side by side, then it's time to use something bigger than the MacBook 11 with zoomed fonts from my example. :)

...unless you really want to prove grandparent's point.

Try saying that again when you are 50 and your eyes no longer as good as they used to be. Back when I was 25 I loved the tiny fonts I could fit on my (then incredibly large) 19 inch monitor which I had pushed to the highest resolution. These days even with special computer glasses (magnification and optimized for computer distance) I can't make such tiny text.

Now get off my lawn you punks!

Also old. Also can not read the fonts my earlier self would use. Still do not understand the love for narrow columns.

Crazy.

I am.

And that's why I said I use the zoom in VSCode in my previous message. My font is big as fuck compared to everyone else.

I understand the age issue but you can always get a 42" display? LG C2/3/4 are amazing.

200 is entirely too fucking long, and I code on a 43” 4K. I try to stay under 90 in deference to others, and if it looks better breaking at 80, so be it.

200 allowed doesn't mean most lines will be. In general, 99% will be around 150 with a few places going high if it makes sense.