Comment # 9 on bug 423007 from Karl Eichwalder

(In reply to Benjamin Zeller from comment #8)
> Maybe Michael can say something about that. 
> We discussed that last week and the outcome was to stick with 100 columns
> because terminals are wide enough today.

People are different :)  And people said the same 10 years ago and even 15
years ago co#132 were quite common.  A default xterm still starts with
COLUMNS=80.

This mean: either stick with the 79/80 characters line length or use long lines
(= no line breaks at all, and hope terminals will handle it properly).