The reason for 80 columns is that it is the standard width of a
typewritten line, right? Perhaps including a little rounding and
margins.
-- Ernie P.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dave Long <dl@silcom.com>
To: "'fork@xent.ics.uci.edu'" <fork@xent.ICS.uci.edu>
Subject: Re: Stupid Ideas
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 17:55:54 -0700
X-UIDL: fc69333a192dfcc95b635080bce1ccf8
Nelson Minar wrote on 14/8/98 6:24:
>Anyway, I despair that we'll
>ever get rid of line oriented
>email.
Would plain-text be a better term? I'm replying to this mail from
a Palm III, and it's quite intelligible, despite the lines having
been wrapped to a 160 pixel screen.
>I know we have 80 column
>lines because punchcards
>were 80 columns. But why
>were punchcards that size?
The story I've heard is that punchcard form-factor was
backwards-compatible with US paper currency, for ease of storage.
Anyone with a punchcard care to do the experiment?
>While we're on this rant -
>what is *up* with VT100?
Don't forget that even VR environments and PDAs wind up with vt100
emu's; Diva, can you tell us what $ bills were compatible with?
-Dave