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  3. How wide is your code?

How wide is your code?

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  • P PIEBALDconsult

    It's not as frequent as typeface "discussions". Survey from last June[^] in case you're interested.

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    charlieg
    wrote on last edited by
    #16

    or, "What source control system do you use?" ;P Next comes - what font do you type in? :))

    Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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    • R realJSOP

      91 characters

      "Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
      -----
      "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001

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      charlieg
      wrote on last edited by
      #17

      haha - rebel. Seriously, why 91?

      Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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      • D Dr Walt Fair PE

        charlieg wrote:

        I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark.

        Youngster! I wrote my first program in 1967 (remember punch cards? ), so I'm working on my 5th decade. I usually try to keep my code on a normal screen or page, so I keep it around 80 characters wide, but sometimes I violate that guideline.

        CQ de W5ALT

        Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software

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        Lost User
        wrote on last edited by
        #18

        Punched Cards? You were lucky! I wrote my first by entering the binary to represent each instruction, and pressing the 'big red button' to enter it. I linged for the luxury of punched cards :)

        ___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

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        • L Lost User

          Punched Cards? You were lucky! I wrote my first by entering the binary to represent each instruction, and pressing the 'big red button' to enter it. I linged for the luxury of punched cards :)

          ___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

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          Dr Walt Fair PE
          wrote on last edited by
          #19

          Done that, too. That was how we got the boot loader going so it could read the punch cards.

          CQ de W5ALT

          Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software

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          • C charlieg

            haha - rebel. Seriously, why 91?

            Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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            Luc Pattyn
            wrote on last edited by
            #20

            42 isn't really comfortable?

            Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]


            The quality and detail of your question reflects on the effectiveness of the help you are likely to get. Show formatted code inside PRE tags, and give clear symptoms when describing a problem.


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            • C charlieg

              You young'uns ar spoiled by modern technology. I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark. I think John Simmons is older than me. He's angrier, i'm more dangerous ;) So, I'm contemplating a couple of s/w issues and one of those is - when to hit the return key? As I type this, I have to my left a 1920x1200 monitor connected to my 1920x1200 laptop. It seems to me a little silly to worry about any developer who might not have the same h/w rsources. To arbitrarily linebreak at 80, 132, or whatever seems a bit silly. Printing? Muahahahaaha.. come on. Thoughts?

              Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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              Roger Wright
              wrote on last edited by
              #21

              Printing is no issue to me; I've got a 24" HP plotter, so any page up to 150' wide is no trouble. ;P My screen is somewhat more limited, however.

              "A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"

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              • D Dr Walt Fair PE

                charlieg wrote:

                I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark.

                Youngster! I wrote my first program in 1967 (remember punch cards? ), so I'm working on my 5th decade. I usually try to keep my code on a normal screen or page, so I keep it around 80 characters wide, but sometimes I violate that guideline.

                CQ de W5ALT

                Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software

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                Estherino
                wrote on last edited by
                #22

                also *salutes* As a young'un, I have always wanted to try punch cards! There's something compelling about an analogue system I can feel with my hands, having now gone through uni without even leaning machine code or anything similarly fundamental, and binary was always just theory and maths - never actually used in practice etc. I know it's simply a nostalgia/novelty thing (and worth being on the receiving end of a bit of a chuckle from 'those who know') but I have read so many books on computing over the years and it would be great to have a taste of the frustration and history! Is there anywhere in Australia, (or the world?) where you can use a punch-card system? Any working computer museums out there to let us know how good we've got it now? Cheers, Estherino

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                • C charlieg

                  You young'uns ar spoiled by modern technology. I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark. I think John Simmons is older than me. He's angrier, i'm more dangerous ;) So, I'm contemplating a couple of s/w issues and one of those is - when to hit the return key? As I type this, I have to my left a 1920x1200 monitor connected to my 1920x1200 laptop. It seems to me a little silly to worry about any developer who might not have the same h/w rsources. To arbitrarily linebreak at 80, 132, or whatever seems a bit silly. Printing? Muahahahaaha.. come on. Thoughts?

                  Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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                  Todd Smith
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #23

                  Word wrap. Returns are for wimps.

                  Todd Smith

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                  • G Gary R Wheeler

                    Crap, I have identifiers longer than 80 characters in some of my code.

                    Software Zen: delete this;
                    Fold With Us![^]

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                    blackjack2150
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #24

                    Me too. Though, they are in xsd.exe auto-generated code files, based on xml schema files. A pain when I need to use those in my client code...

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                    • C charlieg

                      You young'uns ar spoiled by modern technology. I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark. I think John Simmons is older than me. He's angrier, i'm more dangerous ;) So, I'm contemplating a couple of s/w issues and one of those is - when to hit the return key? As I type this, I have to my left a 1920x1200 monitor connected to my 1920x1200 laptop. It seems to me a little silly to worry about any developer who might not have the same h/w rsources. To arbitrarily linebreak at 80, 132, or whatever seems a bit silly. Printing? Muahahahaaha.. come on. Thoughts?

                      Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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                      MatrixDud
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #25

                      I try not to use ridiculously long variable names. Function calls (or SQL statements) that take 20 parameters I normally break after each one. It's not that I want to keep my lines at 80 characters, its because I want the next guy to be able to read it without cursing under their breath. It looks neater anyway.

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                      • C charlieg

                        You young'uns ar spoiled by modern technology. I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark. I think John Simmons is older than me. He's angrier, i'm more dangerous ;) So, I'm contemplating a couple of s/w issues and one of those is - when to hit the return key? As I type this, I have to my left a 1920x1200 monitor connected to my 1920x1200 laptop. It seems to me a little silly to worry about any developer who might not have the same h/w rsources. To arbitrarily linebreak at 80, 132, or whatever seems a bit silly. Printing? Muahahahaaha.. come on. Thoughts?

                        Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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                        leppie
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #26

                        charlieg wrote:

                        1920x1200 monitor

                        On that res, I like to have 2 editor windows, side-by-side. So probably around a 100?

                        xacc.ide
                        IronScheme - 1.0 beta 3 - out now!
                        ((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x))

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                        • D Dr Walt Fair PE

                          Done that, too. That was how we got the boot loader going so it could read the punch cards.

                          CQ de W5ALT

                          Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software

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                          Robert Surtees
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #27

                          I'm an 80 column "puncher" as well. I pretty sure the world would come to an end if I typed past column 80. For those that did not have the pleasure of using punch cards, you have to also understad that the keypunch machines rarely had a working ribbon in them so to insert new cards (or, heavan forbid you dropped the deck) you had to identify them by reading the semi-braille dents across the top or otherwise make sense of the pattern of punched out holes. Now for the bit switchers, here's[^] a nice video going though an Altair 8800 bootstrap to bring back a memory or two. Now that was an IDE. Deposit,

                          OriginalGriffO J 2 Replies Last reply
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                          • C charlieg

                            You young'uns ar spoiled by modern technology. I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark. I think John Simmons is older than me. He's angrier, i'm more dangerous ;) So, I'm contemplating a couple of s/w issues and one of those is - when to hit the return key? As I type this, I have to my left a 1920x1200 monitor connected to my 1920x1200 laptop. It seems to me a little silly to worry about any developer who might not have the same h/w rsources. To arbitrarily linebreak at 80, 132, or whatever seems a bit silly. Printing? Muahahahaaha.. come on. Thoughts?

                            Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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                            mojp
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #28

                            I can't stand code that avoids CR's. Code should above all be easy to read and follow by others. Nicely spaced, indented and printable, with not too much on each line.

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                            • R Robert Surtees

                              I'm an 80 column "puncher" as well. I pretty sure the world would come to an end if I typed past column 80. For those that did not have the pleasure of using punch cards, you have to also understad that the keypunch machines rarely had a working ribbon in them so to insert new cards (or, heavan forbid you dropped the deck) you had to identify them by reading the semi-braille dents across the top or otherwise make sense of the pattern of punched out holes. Now for the bit switchers, here's[^] a nice video going though an Altair 8800 bootstrap to bring back a memory or two. Now that was an IDE. Deposit,

                              OriginalGriffO Offline
                              OriginalGriffO Offline
                              OriginalGriff
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #29

                              But you try and tell the youth of to day that! They won't believe you! Punch cards (Why did the card printer never work?) Paper Tape (OK, who let it run all over the floor?) Front panel binary key Bootstrap (Age 50 last Feb)

                              No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced. This message is made of fully recyclable Zeros and Ones

                              "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                              "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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                              • C charlieg

                                hey, I searched, I didn't see it. Am I starting a dead-horse discussion? Apologies if I am.

                                Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

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                                urbane tiger
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #30

                                Doesn't bother me comrade, as long as there's a dog's eye under the dead horse :laugh: i think we can blame Hollerith for 80 and Friden for 132, didn't know them personally but used their kit from time to time. Being weaned on paper tape I guess my code tends towards a being a stream of consciousness, spat out across the room into large waste paper bins. Only those familiar with hi-speed paper tape punches will understand what I mean, and I don't mean that wimpish fanfold stuff from DEC - I mean the stuff from Ferranti & Univac that flew for 15 feet or more. BTW : I'm creeping up on my half century of churning out this crap they call code, roll on 2015 :zzz:

                                Multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur.(Pliny)

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                                • L Luc Pattyn

                                  42 isn't really comfortable?

                                  Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]


                                  The quality and detail of your question reflects on the effectiveness of the help you are likely to get. Show formatted code inside PRE tags, and give clear symptoms when describing a problem.


                                  D Offline
                                  D Offline
                                  dawmail333
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #31

                                  Because he's not dead, he's living in my head... See if you get that one =P

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • M mojp

                                    I can't stand code that avoids CR's. Code should above all be easy to read and follow by others. Nicely spaced, indented and printable, with not too much on each line.

                                    A Offline
                                    A Offline
                                    Anna Jayne Metcalfe
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #32

                                    Me too. :)

                                    Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"

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                                    • C charlieg

                                      You young'uns ar spoiled by modern technology. I'm one of those old geezers still writing code, dangerously close to the 3 decade mark. I think John Simmons is older than me. He's angrier, i'm more dangerous ;) So, I'm contemplating a couple of s/w issues and one of those is - when to hit the return key? As I type this, I have to my left a 1920x1200 monitor connected to my 1920x1200 laptop. It seems to me a little silly to worry about any developer who might not have the same h/w rsources. To arbitrarily linebreak at 80, 132, or whatever seems a bit silly. Printing? Muahahahaaha.. come on. Thoughts?

                                      Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

                                      B Offline
                                      B Offline
                                      Brady Kelly
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #33

                                      Whatever the other developer hasn't got, surely they have line wrap, the ingrates.

                                      You really gotta try harder to keep up with everyone that's not on the short bus with you. - John Simmons / outlaw programmer.

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                                      • C charlieg

                                        haha - rebel. Seriously, why 91?

                                        Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Hurtling toward a government of the stupid, by the stupid, for the stupid we go. —Michelle Malkin This crap sandwich is all yours.... 2009 "Stimulus Bill"

                                        R Offline
                                        R Offline
                                        realJSOP
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #34

                                        It's a comfortable width. Up until a couple of years ago, I was doing 80 characters.

                                        "Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
                                        -----
                                        "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • E Estherino

                                          also *salutes* As a young'un, I have always wanted to try punch cards! There's something compelling about an analogue system I can feel with my hands, having now gone through uni without even leaning machine code or anything similarly fundamental, and binary was always just theory and maths - never actually used in practice etc. I know it's simply a nostalgia/novelty thing (and worth being on the receiving end of a bit of a chuckle from 'those who know') but I have read so many books on computing over the years and it would be great to have a taste of the frustration and history! Is there anywhere in Australia, (or the world?) where you can use a punch-card system? Any working computer museums out there to let us know how good we've got it now? Cheers, Estherino

                                          U Offline
                                          U Offline
                                          urbane tiger
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #35

                                          Monash University in Melbourne is one place to look - I think they have some oldish CDC kit and a Ferranti Sirius, Atlas' little brother. Sydney Uni Basser School of CompSci may have some old kit too left over from Csirac, which was a near clone of the original Univac, the former was built by CSIRO in the 50/60's - Basser inherited it (I think). IBM may have some working punched card gear somewhere. You might be even find a hand operated punch at least that would probably still work, try Ebay. Or you could ask the Governor of Florida, he/she may have one left over from the chad debacle of 2000 :-D . I think Atlas has been resurrected in part at least, presumably at Manchester or maybe its at the Science Museum in South Kensington along with Babbages Engine, and I think they may have put Colossus back together at Bletchley Park if you're over that way, and there's an Elliot machine at Bletchley too. The only analog system I ever got to play with for a few weeks was a one of Elliot's flight simulation systems that they bolted onto our 803 digital system in an attempt to solve a simulation problem, it didn't work - well at least not in the time frame our manager was demanding - you know I want it by lunchtime, today. Don't think it had punch cards though, potentiometers, capacitor sliders and a patch panel are what I remember. Mercury delay memory was good stuff, you could watch your program's scribbles. If we had it today then MS wouldn't need to ban memcpy from their code. Did anyone here work on Singer Link flight simulators. I had a flight in a Link F111 simulator up at Amberley in the late '70's, scary stuff because its physical, i.e. it shakes, rattles and rolls in real space & time; wonder if they're still working, if the F111's are still flying then they may be, worth a look if they'll let you in, they had two back then. Much more interesting that a punched card. And what about the Singer System 10, now that was a weird system, it had hardware decimal arithmetic as I recall, everything was in 10's, all data was written in blocks of a 100 six bit bytes, and you could have assembler or RPG. I always thought it bizarre that a sewing machine company should make things like flight simulators & decimal computers. Have fun

                                          Multi famam, conscientiam pauci verentur.(Pliny)

                                          modified on Monday, May 18, 2009 5:48 AM

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