[livesinhel]

> Arbitrary rules like line width (and I assure you, those rules ARE arbitrary) help exactly 0 people per day, and cause problems for more than 0 people per day.

Linters' line length rules solve a problem of useless bikeshedding and introduce consistence to the code. This already helps everyone involved in reading and writing the code.

[naikrovek]

If people were interested in stopping the bikeshedding, they would create an editor that let everyone view the code however they please, and check in with a consistent format that doesn't matter. Extensions for source control tools and debuggers would quickly point to the token that caused an issue, for example, rather than the line number.

Instead everyone just creates rules that they like, then force those rules on everyone else as a power move, then use "this is for consistency and anti-bikeshedding" as an excuse to keep their own preferences enforced on others.

And before anyone argues, I've seen it happen multiple times. I swear people become team leads solely to force their preferences on others. They certainly are fond of power trips, in my experience.