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From: Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Which code style do you prefer the most?
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2025 22:30:00 +0100
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On 09.03.2025 20:18, Tim Rentsch wrote:
> 
> I often read code on 8.5 by 11 paper.  I find using that medium
> gives me a wider focus, and lets me understand how code fits
> together on a large scale, better than looking at code on a
> display, even a very large one. 

Oh, I wouldn't have expected that there's something here where I
can agree with you. Or only disagree in that I'd prefer A4 format
(instead of US Letter). Though I wouldn't expect that many folks
still prefer (for a better overview) paper to displays. More so
if we consider that common (e.g. 24") screens have an area that
even exceeds two A4 papers put side by side horizontally.

Another thing is that folks (me included) not only read source
code but also search and navigate source code. So unless some
'paper-grep' gets developed - a feature I've been seeking since
decades! - paper is not exactly good as reason for a 80 columns
discussion (i.e. beyond the upthread already mentioned general
better readability property of smaller text widths in printed
media).

Paper of course has yet some other advantages; for me, I inspect
or study the papers at the sunny balcony, with my head comfortably
lowered, and I don't carry 24" displays around and don't want to
have lighting issues (with reflections and brightness). And with
two hands you can hold two papers one below the other too look
over 120-130 lines of code at once (assuming separate papers and
not continuous listing paper that allows even more). ;-)

> Having more than 80 columns per
> line when using a paper medium makes the characters smaller, and
> IME increases the amount of effort and energy needed when reading,
> which consequently limits the amount of time I can spend reviewing
> and understanding code. 

It depends. In cases where you're focusing on structure than on
details of content smaller fonts are advantageous. In programming
there's a mixture of looking at contents and structure[*]. Here
the advantage of screens with a scalable font size beats paper;
you can adjust windows and fonts to fit actual necessities. YMMV.
(And there's yet more useful functions available, like folding.)

[*] That's a difference to left-aligned, blocked prose text, BTW.

> There are other reasons to want to limit
> line lengths to something near 80 columns, but the effect of output
> on standard paper media is one of the most compelling.

Back in the days when paper was more commonly used I often printed
source code with a2ps in its default mode, which was 2 print pages
side by side on a landscape A4 paper (with a scaling equivalent of
~71%); for 80-column programs that was fine - more columns would
result in extremely annoying line wrapping, which is actually the
primary reason for me to typically not use lines larger than these
80 columns (that a lot of devices, tools, programs, and standards
rely on). That equally holds for displays and for output on paper!

One aspect when working together with others on the same source is
important to be aware of; cleanly formatted 80-columns source code
can be trivially read by "anyone", but larger lines that wrap on
smaller devices (or on paper, if you like) is an unnecessary pain
for others; I would even call it anti-social. :-)

Janis