When ones prints a REXML document that contains a tag with a long text (with space chars), the REXML::Formatters::Pretty formatter will force a line wrapping at column 80.
If one changes the value of the width attribute of the formatter to a very large value does not change the result.
In other words, the formatter ignores the value of the 'width' attribute.
The REXML version used is:
REXML VERSION = "3.1.7.3"
REXML REVISION = 26193
Apparently, the defect lies in the method REXML::Formatters::Pretty#write_text.
There is a statement with a hardcoded value of 80.
Look in the .rb file in attachment for a possible fix of this bug.
=begin
It seems that this had been fixed in Ruby 1.9.3. Please update your ruby or request a backport for r31997 and r31998. (ayumin will backport them. :-) See also #4498.