RE: [External] : Re: master 556c304007 2/2: * .dir-locals.el: Set emacs-lisp-docstring-fill-column.

[Drew Adams]

> > >> + (emacs-lisp-docstring-fill-column . 65)
> > >
> > > And why don't we raise the default to 70 to get 
> > > ready for the larger displays of the early 2000's?
> >
> > Why not 75?  It's still less than the hard limit of 80 characters
> > for the 80x24 terminal window.
> 
> Fine by me, but `fill-column' defaults to 70 and I guess it would be
> nice if they were the same.
> 
> Maybe 72 or 78 (RFC 2822) is more standard though.

Just leave all such default values as they are, please.

There's no reason to change them just because some
people use wide monitors sometimes with Emacs.

There are many kinds of displays now, and there will
be many more to come, from phones to zignosters and
trilopiths.

The default line-length is fine.  And it serves the
eye well for reading.  There's a reason newsprint
columns aren't typically 250 or 314 chars wide.

It's SO EASY for a user to customize this, and SO
EASY to set it on the fly (`C-x f').

RFC 2822 is about internet messages.  It's irrelevant
here.

But you might want to argue that it could be relevant
to some Emacs modes that compose messages.  Go ahead
and argue that - change the default for some modes,
if you must (after some discussion), but leave the
_default_ default alone.

And text line length can have a different effect
depending on the font, in particular fixed vs variable
width.  Someone might want to change the default
automatically when moving between those font types -
e.g. create a minor mode that does that.

Changing defaults, including this one, should be
based on good reasons AND, preferably, some evidence
of actual user practice (settings).

___

RFC 2822:
 "The more conservative 78 character recommendation
  is to accommodate the many implementations of user
  interfaces that display these messages which may
  truncate, or disastrously wrap, the display of
  more than 78 characters per line"