Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!algor2!jeffrey
From: jeffrey@algor2.UUCP (jeffrey)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: External Linkage in dpANS C
Summary: Probably the 6 character limit will hurt most those who asked for it
Message-ID: <196@algor2.UUCP>
Date: 5 Jan 89 19:46:55 GMT
References: <1339@vsi1.COM> <12040002@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Organization: Algorists, Inc., Reston VA
Lines: 21

Those manufacturers whose existing linkers made them feel compelled to insist
that identifiers must be unique when truncated to 6 case indifferent characters
may have done themselves the greatest damage.

Any ANSI C program written on their systems will be portable to all other
systems.  The difficulty will be raised in porting code with longer
identifiers to their systems.  Hence, code on their systems will easily be
ported to their competitors, but code written on their competitor's systems may
not port to them.  I wish I could express great amounts of sympathy over the
business they might lose.

I believe in honesty, decency and portable C code, but the temptation to
deviate from these standards is often overwhelming.  And in a environment
where I expect almost all the major vendors will support 31 characters
everywhere, the trade off of readability versus portability makes the
temptation extremely strong.

-- 

Jeffrey Kegler, President, Algorists, uunet!jeffrey@algor2.UU.NET
1788 Wainwright DR, Reston VA 22090, 703-471-1378