And this is a silly point because I want to be able to put 2-3 files side-by-side, on that big monitor. Who are all these people asking for long code that means I don't get more than one file on screen at a time?
> The question could possibly be exactly where to draw the limit, and that’s a debate for every project to have.
It is subjective, and does not live in a vacuum because along with purely subjective preference regarding it on its own, it affects, and is affected by, other choices like naming and indentation conventions.
They like 80 in their project. Feel free to choose something else for your project.
For git commits, I do not go beyond ~69 characters per line, so it looks neat when I am viewing the commit history.
120 characters may be fine if I only care about coding in VSCodium, for example, so sometimes I might go above the 80 column width when I am programming Go using VSCodium, but I try to not do that, because I still use "less" and whatnot, plus I have an old 17" monitor. I do not like wide monitors, I want to be able to look at the whole screen all at once, with wide monitors I would either have to be too far away, or move my head / neck / eyes too often.
So... my fonts are small, I limit to 80 column width, and I am quite happy with it. :P
To each their own, although I would have issues with Java code that not only requires me to have many files open, I would have to switch back and forth files, and I would have to horizontally scroll a lot.
I hope you realize what I am trying to say, if not, I will elaborate.
I have a 32" screen running at "standard" pixel pitch (matching the 24" 1080p screen I have in portrait next to it) which I sometimes use full-screen but usually have split 50/50, 33/66, 25/75, or 33/33/33, depending on what I'm doing. One of our testers doesn't understand, can't see benefit I get from the flexibility ("why not just have two monitors?" has been asked several times). It seems to actively annoy her that such a wide screen exists. If she ever saw the ultra-wide my friend uses for gaming I think she'd have a seizure.
Admittedly when sat this monitor plus the other in portrait is in total a bit wide (so the other screen is usually relegated to just being mail/chat windows that I only interact with when something pings for my attention) and a touch too tall. It is much more comfortable when I use the desk raised so I stand, which is how I work >⅔ of the time.