From: Chap Harrison > On Jun 13, 2009, at 4:07 PM, David Christensen wrote: >> Chas. Owens wrote: >> >>> the only True Way is to use tabs for indent levels and spaces for >>> alignment, this allows the user to set his or her indentation to >>> whatever he or she wants by modifying how many spaces a tab displays. >>> [72 columns maximum] is still a religious issue, not a coding issue. > > Just out of curiosity, why 72? If I recall correctly, FORTRAN on > Hollerith cards used cols 1-72 for code and 73-80 for optional > sequence numbers. And 360-assembler used col 1-71 for code and col 72
> as the "continuation column". Did either or both of those influence > the tradition? A more likely source is the Teletype terminals used on some early systems. They printed 10 characters per inch on 8 1/2 inch wide paper rolls. To keep from running off the right edge of the paper, the automatic carriage return was normally set at column 73. This had been the standard setting for Teletype(*) manufactured equipment for a couple of decades. Those computers usually had Teletype Corp. Model 35, ASCII terminals. I serviced Model 28 equipment with five bit BAUDOT code while in the US Navy from '72-'77. I also got a chance to work on a couple of Model 33 units, also BAUDOT encoded, after I left the service. Bob McConnell (*) Teletype Corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Electric and Bell Telephone at that time. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: beginners-unsubscr...@perl.org For additional commands, e-mail: beginners-h...@perl.org http://learn.perl.org/
