Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Max line length (was Re: programming challenge ...)
Message-ID: <1166@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 14 Mar 89 02:02:46 GMT
References: <2102@jasper.UUCP> <207600017@s.cs.uiuc.edu> <9777@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 24

>What is the longest line allowed in a C program?

It depends on the implementation.

>Does the standard say?

Well, there's no standard, there's just a proposed standard, but the
December 7, 1988 draft, which is probably now the proposed standard (and
which is probably going to be very similar to the final standard) says:

	2.2.4.1 Translation limits

	   The implementation shall be able to translate and execute at
	least one program that contains at least one instance of every
	one of the following limits:

	...

	   + 509 characters in a logical source line

	...

In a footnote, it says "Implementations should avoid imposing fixed
translation limites whenever possible."