> Instead, I would prefer a soft semantic wrap
So would I, but...
> if a single semantic unit (be that a word, a clause, or whatever else) extends beyond, say, 80 characters, we keep it on the same line and let the editor/file viewer handle wrapping.
...the editor can't do that because it doesn't understand the semantics.
> that wrapping based on semantics is an orthogonal concept to hard and soft wrapping
Yes, that's why I've been saying "hard and/or soft [but in either case nonsemantic] wrapping".
> > > With semantic wrapping you put each sentence (or similar) on a new line [...] But if that sentence runs over e.g. 80 characters, [then...]
... You don't need to fall back on non-semantic wrapping, you can just just keep breaking it up into smaller and smaller semantically-meaningful pieces.
(You have to do that 'hard'-ly because the editor doesn't understand the semantics, but that's not "decid[ing] whether you're going to hard wrap or soft wrap", it's being forced to hard wrap as a implementation detail because that's what results in correct wrapping.)
It might not be worth the effort to do that, but you're never forced not to (given not-pathologically-short line length limits like 20 characters).
So would I, but...
> if a single semantic unit (be that a word, a clause, or whatever else) extends beyond, say, 80 characters, we keep it on the same line and let the editor/file viewer handle wrapping.
...the editor can't do that because it doesn't understand the semantics.
> that wrapping based on semantics is an orthogonal concept to hard and soft wrapping
Yes, that's why I've been saying "hard and/or soft [but in either case nonsemantic] wrapping".
> > > With semantic wrapping you put each sentence (or similar) on a new line [...] But if that sentence runs over e.g. 80 characters, [then...]
... You don't need to fall back on non-semantic wrapping, you can just just keep breaking it up into smaller and smaller semantically-meaningful pieces.
(You have to do that 'hard'-ly because the editor doesn't understand the semantics, but that's not "decid[ing] whether you're going to hard wrap or soft wrap", it's being forced to hard wrap as a implementation detail because that's what results in correct wrapping.)
It might not be worth the effort to do that, but you're never forced not to (given not-pathologically-short line length limits like 20 characters).