Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 UW 5/3/83; site uw-june Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!uw-june!gordon From: gordon@uw-june (Gordon Davisson) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: 6 char externs and the ANSI standard Message-ID: <1859@uw-june> Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 21:34:23 EDT Article-I.D.: uw-june.1859 Posted: Tue Oct 9 21:34:23 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Oct-84 06:48:29 EDT References: <4095@tekecs.UUCP> Organization: U of Washington Computer Science Lines: 33 I think you should definetly have the standard allow long external variable names. Limiting them to 6 characters would have a number of bad effects: 1) Compiler writes would follow the standard. This means that there would be even more obsolete implementations out there next time someone designs a language, and they'll have to deal with this question all over again. The 6 character limit is older than I am, and it's high time it was retired. 2) Compiler writers would *not* follow the standard. The problem with this is that everyone will violate it in a different way. Some compilers will support 31 char limits, some 64, some 255. In other words, the standard will not be used and would therefore be a failure. This is not nearly as serious as 1, but it is a problem. 3) Programmers would follow the standard. This leads to unreadable, unmaintainable, and generally ugly programs. 4) Programmers would *not* follow the standard. Since 6 character variables are such a pain in the *ss, programmers using extended compilers will tend to take advantage of the ability to use understandable names, and proceed to write non-portable programs. The main problem with long externs is that some compilers will have to work with existing linkers that can't handle long names, but I think the best way to deal with this is to define a "standard subset". I don't want to see such limited compiler/linker setups advertised as "Full ANSI C" as if they weren't 10 years out of date. -- Human: Gordon Davisson USnail: 5008 12th NE, Seattle, WA, 98105 UUCP: {ihnp4,decvax,tektronix}!uw-beaver!uw-june!gordon