Sounds like a carryover from punch cards. 80 columns but only the first 72 were used, the remainder could be used for sequence numbers. I remember FORTRAN IV programs with labels in columns 1-5 and column 6 was the continuation column, 7-72 were used, 73-80 ignored.
From: Bill Prince via Af Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 11:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Text width They were typically 80 characters wide, but it was common to limit actual text to 72 characters. bp <part-15@SkylineBroadbandService> On 11/19/2014 8:51 AM, Chuck McCown via Af wrote: How many columns wide did the old TTL dos monitors display? 80? I am writing some C# code and I want to use my old commenting format but I don’t remember the page widths I used back in the day.
