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From: bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: MAJOR ANSI C FLAW (my opinion, of course)
Message-ID: <191@sas.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 17-Oct-87 15:08:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: sas.191
Posted: Sat Oct 17 15:08:57 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Oct-87 11:36:47 EDT
References: <1132@gilsys.UUCP>
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.,Cary NC,25712
Lines: 21
Keywords: external names, length, bogosity to the max
Summary: talk to the linker-writers


The six-character limit on external names in ANSI is due to the fact that
external names must be resolved by the LINKER, not the COMPILER.  Compiler-
writers are forced under ANSI to keep very long names around; ANSI just 
didn't force compiler-writers to write linkers as well.  In fact, there
are systems where the name limit is forced by the standard system 
object code format.

On IBM MVS systems, for example, external names longer than eight characters 
are simply not expressible in the object-file format; in order for a C
compiler to use them, it would have to have an incompatible format and 
the compiler-writers would have to write their own linker, which would 
effectively preclude sharing code with other languages and standard 
packages (not to mention talking to the operating system!).

Sorry, but that's the way it is.
-- 
                                                         --Brian.
(Brian T. Schellenberger)				 ...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts

DISCLAIMER:  Whereas Brian Schellenberger (hereinafter "the party of the first