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Most style guidelines for most programming languages recommend a maximum line length, typically 80 characters. This seems impractically short for HTML and JavaScript (when it is embedded in HTML). Is there a consensus on a practical line length limit for HTML/JavaScript? Or is it generally left up to the developer's common sense?
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Try to keep the length of lines less than 80 characters. This would make the code easier to read. Best practice is to move to next line using break if JavaScript statements aren't fitting in a single line.
Traditional line length research, limited to print-based text, gave a variety of results, but generally for printed text it is widely accepted that line lengths fall between 45 and 75 characters per line (cpl), though the ideal is 66 cpl (including letters and spaces).
There is no "global limit", but you could have an IDE large limit. Anyway, it's a good practice to have a limit because the code has to be readable ( E.g.: 80-120 characters ).
Probably the main reason for changing the maximum line length, in either direction, is to be able to view more code on the screen at once. Too long, and you can't see the right hand side; too short and you can't see all of the lines.
Since you mention JavaScript, this is what Douglas Crockford has to say on the topic:
Avoid lines longer than 80 characters. When a statement will not fit on a single line, it may be necessary to break it. Place the break after an operator, ideally after a comma. A break after an operator decreases the likelihood that a copy-paste error will be masked by semicolon insertion. The next line should be indented 8 spaces.
From: Code Conventions for the JavaScript Programming Language
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This limit seems to be a legacy from ancient IBM punch cards. Why is 80 characters the 'standard' limit for code width?
I really find it hard to work with only 80 characters for HTML. It gets unreadable really fast. So I decided for myself to take the line length on GitHub as measurement.
There seem to be different character limits depending on OS and/or browser. But 120 should be a quite safe value.
On Ubuntu:
- Firefox: 126
- Opera 12.16: 126
- Chromium: 113
On OSX 10.9:
- Google Chrome: 125
- Firefox: 122
- Safari: 121
Source: What is Github's character limit, or line length for viewing files on github?
On the other hand sometimes choosing your own standard doesn't work. Coding standards or linters for your language or framework might force you to stick to 80 characters. Which at least can be really helpful when it comes to reading code on mobile screens.
But for HTML I'd devo rise this number to 120 characters. For the sake of readability. I mean think of all the CSS-class-heavy frameworks like Bootstrap, what would your template look like in the end with only 80 characters line length? (Apart from that you'd better choose Bourbon Neat which won't pollute your HTML with tons of classes.)
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