Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site alberta.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!alberta!jeff From: jeff@alberta.UUCP (C. J. Sampson) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: length of external names Message-ID: <380@alberta.UUCP> Date: Sun, 30-Dec-84 21:38:19 EST Article-I.D.: alberta.380 Posted: Sun Dec 30 21:38:19 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 31-Dec-84 03:19:48 EST References: <233@gumby.UUCP> <3194@alice.UUCP>, <236@gumby.UUCP> <4847@utzoo.UUCP> Organization: his Personal Computer Lines: 19 > > and object file format don't accept long or case-sensitive names. What > > does the proposed ANSI standard say about the issue? > > The current draft says that the length limit (if any) and treatment > of case in external identifiers are "implementation-defined", which > means that implementors can do things as they wish but must document > their decisions. Also, the length limit may not be shorter than 6. Gads! When are they going to figure out that 6 or 8 characters is *not* enough. I spent three hours porting ogre to an Altos 586 running some ancient verson of Xenix and most of that was spent changing function names because I had only 7 signifcant characters. I think that the standard should enforce a minimum of 32 characters. We will make programs more portable and readable. ------------------------------------------------------------------- C. J. Sampson Snail Canada: #712 11135-83rd ave. ihnp4! \ Edmonton, Alberta ubc-vision! |- alberta!jeff CANADA T6G 2C8 sask! / Phone: (403) 439-6851