6 character external identifiers

[lcc.barry at UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA]

From:     Barry Gold <lcc.barry at UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA>

>   >   I can live with 6 character names:  I'll just run programs I want
>   >   to be ``portable'' through another program that finds identifiers
>   >   that aren't unique to 6 characters, and replaces them with new
>   >   made up ones that are.  For example,
>   >
>   >           int ReplaceString () { ... }
>   >           int ReplaceChar () { ... }
>   >
>   >   would turn into
>   >
>   >           int _1ReplaceString () { ... }
>   >           int _2ReplaceChar () { ... }
>
>   Okay.  But what if ReplaceString and ReplaceChar are to be placed in a
>   library?  How do you guarantee that your special program will generate
>   _1ReplaceString for ReplaceString, and _2ReplaceChar for ReplaceChar, in
>   any program that tries to use these routines (e.g., in a program that
>   includes a function called ReplaceNode)?

There's a very elegant dictionary scheme for this that we used in the Swift
project at System Development Corporation.  Depending on the degree of
interest expressed, I'll either send it to you (Scott Stevens) for
summarization or post it to this newsgroup.  It may be awhile, though;
it'll take several pages to describe adequately and I'm kind of busy on
other projects right now.

barry gold