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From: wong@rtech.ARPA (J. Wong)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: AT&T 7300 C Compiler/variable name lengths
Message-ID: <289@rtech.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 16-Apr-85 17:07:34 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.289
Posted: Tue Apr 16 17:07:34 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 06:42:06 EST
References: <173@lems.UUCP>
Organization: Relational Technology, Berkeley CA
Lines: 26

> From: rim (Roderick McAllery)
> 
> > .... In general I have found
> > that using only 7 character names is safest, ie. guarantees uniqness. 
> > 
> > ...Personally, I would stick to a maximum of 7 chars for a variable
> > name. I find long names very annoying and subject to typos. Yes this means
> > more cryptic names, but the solution is to put COMMENTS in your C code.
> 
> Personally I would rather have clarity than trying to decipher someones cute 
> little acronyms if I had to maintain a piece of code.  
> ---


Actually, most C compilers accept identifiers of any length.  So you are not
limited in having non-cryptic names.  However, some assemblers and linkers
make the restriction to only recognizing the first n characters.  Thus, only
the first n characters need be unique, the actual name can be longer.
-- 
				J. Wong		ucbvax!mtxinu!rtech!wong

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