Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> Isn't "increased width" an ungodly sin to the developer lord? If anything we want to see more in a given space, not less...

I think it increases readability. I need to read what I'm looking at, not a lot of things I'm not looking at.




Not if a part of a line is out of the window right? This makes splitting harder, therefore, reading harder


Then make your window wider. Bam, problem solved.

"But then I can't see as many windows!" That brings us back to the GP's I need to see what I'm looking at, not what I'm not looking at". When you want to look at those other windows, bring them to the foreground and let them obscure this one.


Seems niche?

I don't think that's enough of a reason to say the design choice is a sin for everyone.


Line length linters are kinda standard. The goal is to have "shorter lines".


Line length doesn't change just because the font itself is wider.


Seems like the same amount of characters that are each wider would be wider? So you would see less characters on a line with the same amount of characters


Well yes and no. The line would visually become longer, but if we're talking enforced line length by IDE's, say 80 characters, then the line would still be 80 characters long, but just take up visually more horizontal space and so whether or not you see the same amount of characters on a line would become an issue of how much horizontal screen space do you afford for code.


Why not just use word wrapping?


I find reading code with word wrapping nearly impossible.


I'm already going with 80 or 120 chars per line. Why would I word wrap well written code?

Also word wrappings will lose all the preceding tabs. It makes it 100x harder to read.

The issue is I will have less split space.


> Also word wrappings will lose all the preceding tabs. It makes it 100x harder to read.

This depends on your editor. I know VS Code supports indentation/alignment of wrapped words. I believe Emacs and Vim support it as well.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: