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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: draft ANSI standard: needs your tomatoes
Message-ID: <7375@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 4-Dec-86 13:39:39 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.7375
Posted: Thu Dec  4 13:39:39 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 4-Dec-86 13:39:39 EST
References: <1384@hoptoad.uucp> <5421@brl-smoke.ARPA>, <1155@ucbcad.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 15

> ... The constants EXTERNAL_NAME_LENGTH (6), INCLUDE_FILES_NEST
> (4), and SOURCE_LINE_LENGTH (509) in particular seem to be very
> inadequate...

The EXTERNAL_NAME_LENGTH minimum is a consequence of the extreme political
undesirability of making it impossible to implement conforming compilers
on systems that have prehistoric object-module formats.  (Let us not get
into the war about the desirability of that again; this *is* the reason,
however inadequate it may seem to some.)  I consider INCLUDE_FILES_NEST
adequate -- multiply nested include files become unmanageable quickly --
but it is a bit low.  SOURCE_LINE_LENGTH is a bit curious, and the choice
of minimum value for it is truly bizarre.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry