[dm-devel] Re: [PATCH] Drop 80-character limit in checkpatch.pl

[Mikulas Patocka]

On Fri, 18 Dec 2009, Linus Torvalds wrote:

> On Fri, 18 Dec 2009, Mikulas Patocka wrote:
> >
> > But think what happens when someone views that 100-char code on 80-char 
> > terminal (or for example 94-char, that I used for some times too) --- 
> > every second line will be wasted with just 20 characters on the left.
> 
> What kind of CRAZY crap argument is that?
> 
> The current rule is 80 characters - but how many lines are actually even 
> close to 80 characters long? Very few.
> 
> So that "every second line" statement is pure and utter idiocy. Instead, 
> what you get is totally the reverse: instead of wasting two lines _anyway_ 
> due to a hard-newline, you often get a single line instead (since most of 
> us don't work in 24x80 windows to begin with).
> 
> 			Linus

Function declarations are often larger than 80 characters. And if you wrap 
them at 100, you are wasting every second line on 80-character display.

If you make line length unlimited, the space will be used optimally on all 
displays --- a function with 200 character declaration will use 3 lines on 
80-character display and 2 lines on 100-character display.

And besides --- wrapping at 100 doesn't fix the initial problem (why I 
posted this thread) --- that making any modification to the function 
header or long expression requires the user to manually realign the 
arguments.

Mikulas