From: utzoo!decvax!cca!gwyn@Brl@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Title: Re:  Berkeley infinite symbol names on the 11
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.4230
Posted: Fri Nov 19 20:43:55 1982
Received: Sun Nov 21 02:10:14 1982

From:     Doug Gwyn <gwyn@Brl>
Date:     16 Nov 82 14:03:12-EST (Tue)
One problem with infinite symbol names is that the symbol table format
standard on PDP-11 UNIX is inadequate.  This would impact the loader,
as well as myriad other system utilities.

If I get many more sources from Berkeley UNIX sites that have
to be converted because of this long-symbol discrepency, I will
come up with a "crunching" tool for automatic symbol shortening.

A better approach would be for people to quit using non-portable
language extensions.