Isn't that coming from the number of columns in a punch card? 80 columns was a pretty standard width in computing for a long, long time (I think this was the limit of the old teletypes as well). Most terminals displayed 24x80, though some, e.g., VT-100, had a rarely used narrow mode that allowed more.
For FORTRAN code, I think it was: Columns 1 - 5 for labels Column 6 for continuation marks Columns 7 - 72 for program statements Columns 73 - 80 for sequence numbers (in case you dropped the deck) Systems that had file systems that understood the concept of records also commonly had a standard text file format that limited lines to 80 characters (no need for carriage return or new-line characters in those file formats). Pica typewriters (the most common size) would also normally print 80 columns with standard margin settings. The other common limit was 132 columns, from line printers. Remember the old white and green paper? Note that this was for output to printer only. I don't think an RFC was needed, everyone knew what the limits were. -- Eric Hildum > From: "Peter C.S. Adams" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 17:32:45 -0500 > To: "Entourage:mac Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Plain text wrap setting > > BTW no RFC I know of *mandates* 80 characters as a line length, > just as a suggested maximum to deal with some SMTP servers. -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
