Comments on: Line Length, Volume, and Density

By: [Erledigt] Coding Guidelines - php.de

[Erledigt] Coding Guidelines - php.de — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:05:28 +0000

[...] M. Jones has some thoughts about that limit. Paul vergleicht das: PHP-Code: [...]

By: Nicolas Dermine

Nicolas Dermine — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:16:35 +0000

I also found my code getting better and better by conforming to an 80 characters limit (less duplication, better named variables and methods).

Another advantage that I noticed lately is when looking at SVN diffs : having lines under 80 characters allows me to see the two revisions side by side without having to scroll to the right to see what changed.

By: W3C Notes One Of My Posts As An “Informational Resource” | Paul M. Jones

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:25:51 +0000

[...] about Visual Presentation, under “Related Resources,” the authors note my article on Line Length, Volume, and Density. I’m surprised and pleased. :-) This entry was posted in Programming. Bookmark the [...]

By: On Preferring Spaces Over Tabs in PHP | Paul M. Jones

On Preferring Spaces Over Tabs in PHP | Paul M. Jones — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:03:39 +0000

[...] Some will say this just shows that line length limits are dumb. I disagree. [...]

By: Moto Akumulator

Moto Akumulator — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:08:45 +0000

Steve McConnell’s “Code Complete” is essential reading on this topic. I need 3 years to put his ideas in my programers practice but today when i looa at my code i am sure that anyone who comes after me will have easy job . Principles of coding from his book shuld be mandatory for any programer !!

By: Daniel O'Connor

Daniel O'Connor — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:44:35 +0000

I think one of the mistakes we’ve made is expressing this as “75-85″ characters. You are dead right, it’s about word groupings.

We all saw that “Cambridge University” jumbled words paragraph that got spammed around the internet.
“I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg”

If nothing else it really highlights that we can work on word shape alone.

I’d love to try and express this differently, as “avoid lines longer than x words” or “Avoid having more than X words over Y characters long”. Or at the very least; having trim()’d the preceeding whitespace avoid having a line < 85 characters.

By: pmjones

pmjones — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:52:51 +0000

@Oliver +1

By: Oliver

Oliver — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:57:49 +0000

@Felds
try this:
$aLongAndDescriptiveObjectName ->anotherLongAndDescriptiveName($inputParameter);

It looks strange but you get used to it. Most of my constructors look like this:
$this
->setFoo($foo)
->setBar($bar)
->setBaz($baz);

And if your object model is good you hardly need really long names.
$h = $fooBarBazGirGumpWhatever->getHandles(); $h->barzoinkadings->close(); $h ->wallawallahoi->close(); $h->redoplasma->close();
is more readable then
$foo->getBarzoinkadingsHandle()->closeHandle(); $foo->getWallawallahoiHandle()->closeHandle(); $foo->getBarzoinkadingsHandle()->closeHandle();

By: Felds

Felds — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:51:47 +0000

I think that
$aLongAndDescriptiveObjectName->anotherLongAndDescriptiveName($inputParameter); // 80 chars
… is way more readable than
$a->b($c); // 11 chars

I’ve seen this happening a few times.
Limiting the line lengths sometimes brings more problems than solutions.

By: pmjones

pmjones — Mon, 23 May 2011 14:14:26 +0000

Hi Paula — I count that as high praise given your bio. Thanks!