Cool Tip: Show a vertical rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

I have no idea why this is not actually an editor option built in, but still, nice to know it's *possible*.
I got this nice tip from a guy named Herfried K. Wagner (MVP)
 
"Once upon a time I asked if it was possible to display a vertical rule after 80 characters in the IDE's text editor.  Today I read the following suggestion in one of the public groups:
 
Note: Before touching your registry, make sure to back it up. Use this at your own risk!
 
Start RegEdit and open the following key:
 
'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\Text Editor'
 
Create a new string named "Guides" and assign the value "RGB(128,0,0) 80".
This will display a vertical rule after 80 characters.  It's even possible to create more than one rule, for example "RGB(128,0,0) 95, 100".
 
This seems to work fine with VS 2003 and 2005 Beta 2!
Published Thursday, August 18, 2005 3:47 AM by RoyOsherove
Filed under: ,

Comments

Wednesday, August 17, 2005 10:20 PM by Andy White

# re: Cool Tip: Show a horizontal rule after 80 chars in VS.NET



http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/archive/2004/11/15/257953.aspx
Thursday, August 18, 2005 4:58 AM by Frans Bouma

# re: Cool Tip: Show a horizontal rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

Why would someone want a line after 80 chars? (your blogtitle suggests a horizontal line ;) ). I understand that if you're on a very wide monitor, and someone else you have to work with isn't, it's not that great to have very looooooong lines, but then again, what purpose does it serve otherwise?
Thursday, August 18, 2005 6:23 AM by Stevie

# re: Cool Tip: Show a horizontal rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

Now to be honest I have never really bought into the whole "no line longer than 80 chars" convention. Sure, I believe that really long line are annoying as hell, but I also think that 80 characters is way too restrictive.

Of course I could just set the guide to 120 chars! ;)
Thursday, August 18, 2005 12:22 PM by Carlton

# re: Cool Tip: Show a horizontal rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

80 characters is the normal limit for printing out code on 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper, otherwise the code wraps. However, I agree that some Dot.Net code can be quite long.
Thursday, August 18, 2005 7:00 PM by Rusty Divine

# re: Cool Tip: Show a vertical rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

I thought the 80 characters stemmed from FORTRAN punch card days; didn't they have an 80 char limit or something?
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 10:38 AM by Kragh

# re: Cool Tip: Show a vertical rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

Yes, typical punced cards (regardless of language or data punched onto them) were 80 columns, other formats and spacing did exist. I have quite a quantity of blank cards from my college days, when we had to buy our own. (Don't ask how long ago, I won't admit)

Back to the vertical rule in VS.Net: I've tried this in VS6.0 and it doesn't seem to do anything. Anyone have different mileage to report??

Friday, July 28, 2006 7:04 AM by Eric D. Burdo

# re: Cool Tip: Show a vertical rule after 80 chars in VS.NET

This also works in VS 2005. Just change the "7.1" to "8" when looking for the registry key. I generally have one set at 80, and another at 100. This gives me a bit of room to play, and I use the second line as a "point of no return".
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:19 PM by buy a foreclosed house

# buy a foreclosed house

I think it’ s important to understand how babies sleep. Babies’ sleep cycles are very quick. They go through the lighter sleep cycles, down to the deeper sleep cycles and back up much quicker than you or me. When they cycle back up from deep sleep into