Question

Occasionally I’ve seen code wrapping email messages to make sure a single line is no more than 72 characters long. Is there really need for this and what is this all about?

Answer 1

To expand on Joe’s response, the 72-char limit basically allows for bodies to then be quoted, so it gives room for the additional chars added to a line, e.g.,

From "scratch":
> From Joe Bloggs, 24 Sept 1985
>
> > Probably some flame about emacs vs vi, eulogising one over the other.
> > The quote chars have added four characters to the start of the line, so
> > forcing wrapped lines at 72 chars pushes this to 76 chars, without
> > affecting the formatting of the paragraph.
> 
> Some rant accusing Joe of talking crap, and throwing out some random
> evidence to the contrary. Quote char adds 2 chars. Again, paragraph
> formatting retained.

Someone else chimes in deciding to eulogise pico over either of the
other two editors. All sides about to turn on this person. :-)

So giving an extra few chars allows the parapgraph formatting to be retained on 80-character terminals, for at least two levels, and potentially more depending on how the quote characters are added/used.