Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!wrdis01!gatech!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!hp4nl!star.cs.vu.nl!ast@cs.vu.nl
From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Computer screens are 80 columns wide
Message-ID: <9753@star.cs.vu.nl>
Date: 18 Apr 91 10:35:36 GMT
Sender: news@cs.vu.nl
Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, VU, Amsterdam
Lines: 19


Much traffic here and in the various mailing lists consists of citations
from other people's mail.  A typical citation is:

In message 1234567890 Lewis Carroll writes:

>> The time has come the walrus said to speak of many things, Of ships and shoes and
>> sealing wax of cabbages and kings, of why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs
have wings


If the original message uses all 80 characters, the citations wraparound or
are truncated, but in any event are unpleasant to read.  I would like to
ask people to try to avoid running their messages out to the margin so
there is room left for the ">> " in the event somebody cites it.  That
is, try to use no more than about 76 columns.  Original messages that
contain text more than 80 characters wide drive me up the wall.  

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)