draft ANSI standard: needs your tomatoes

[Michael Meissner]

/* context is talking about line length */

In article <1502 at isis.UUCP> dragheb at isis.UUCP (Darius Ragheb) writes:
>
> Hmm. Why not just stick to the zero, one, infinite principle: if you are
> going to support something (like the length of a line (:-) or the nesting
> levels), why, either allow one level, or an infinite number (obviously there
> will be an upper limit, probably machine dependant that will never be reached,
> but why build an upper limit that is some arbitrary number like 4 or 6....
> that is as bad as the old FORTRAN limit of 7 dimensions for an array....
> where did that number come from?)

There are MANY operating systems out there that have maximum line length
restrictions, because a line is a record, and records have maximum sizes.
As the rationale says, these limits are maxima minima and are a treaty point
between the compiler vendor and user.  Thus the limit says to the vendor
that s/he must support AT LEAST 509 bytes/line (the minima part), and at the
same time tells the users that the maximum line size they can count on is
509 for portable programs (the maxima part).  Programs can still have more
than 509 bytes/line, but they are not maximally portable.
-- 
	Michael Meissner, Data General
	...mcnc!rti-sel!dg_rtp!meissner