Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site tikal.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tikal!warren From: warren@tikal.UUCP (warren) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: 6 char externs and the ANSI standard Message-ID: <31@tikal.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Oct-84 15:08:08 EDT Article-I.D.: tikal.31 Posted: Thu Oct 4 15:08:08 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 04:01:37 EDT References: <4095@tekecs.UUCP> Organization: Teltone Corp., Kirkland, WA Lines: 23 [This is not a sentence] Six character identifiers are much too short for significant software. There is much to be gained by defining a larger minimum, we all know the benefits. The worst single result is unintented synonyms created when the first 6 letters in an identifier match, as in int record_count; int record_type; The worst error in the C language was in allowing identifier names to be longer than the number of significant characters. This is an invitation to disaster. If possible the ANSI commitee should remove this "feature". Compilers should be forced to at least produce warnings. Although if a compiler can produce warnings, it can handle longer names... If a minimum must be specified, let it be 16 or 20, at least. teltone!warren