Good code is properly formatted. One requirement in python encouraged by PEP-8 is to keep the code within the 80 columns. This is a generally good advice, although some people (including me) find it too restrictive. I prefer to push the code up to 100 columns. We have big screens and no longer the need to print on a 80 columns printer. In other languages, such as fortran the column size is enforced by the compiler, either at 80 or 130, depending on the fortran version.

In vim, you can use softwrapping to get an automatic return if the line is too long, but I find it confusing and not always doing what I want, when I want. I prefer visual hints. Here are two possible solutions.

  • Use the following to highlight in grey (tinker as needed) every character past the 100th column 
      autocmd BufEnter * highlight OverLength ctermbg=darkgrey guibg=darkgrey
  autocmd BufEnter * match OverLength /\%100v.*/
  • Set a colored column as a visual boundary with
set colorcolumn=100