Didier:
> Le 07/01/2025 à 16:57, karl@??? a écrit :
> > The 80 chars line length comes from what was common on punched cards
>     Sure, but where does the line-lenth of the punched cards come from? (~:

Is there any specific reason why you didn't bother to look up the links
I provided:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

For more about the topic, see:
https://knox.codes/posts/line-length-limits
https://hilton.org.uk/blog/source-code-line-length
https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse122/25wi/resources/code_quality/
Similar for texts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_length
https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

///

1, card size:
[1] "At some point, 3+1/4 by 7+3/8 inches (83 by 187 mm) became the standard
card size. These are the dimensions of the then-current paper currency of
1862-1923. This size was needed in order to use available banking-type
storage for the 60,000,000 punched cards to come nationwide."

2, hole form and size:
the original Hollerith cards were of different sizes but they had
round holes. Later cards had rectangular and smaller "holes" so you
could get 80 columns per card. There were 90 and 96 col. cards also
but they didn't become popular.

So I guess it is market success that made 80-cols. the dominating
format.

Regards,
/Karl Hammar