Using identifiers with more than 7 chars. #$%@

[Mike I'll be mellow when I'm dead Meyer]

In article <29 at gilbbs.UUCP> mc68020 at gilbbs.UUCP (Tom Keller) writes:
>or some other form of UNIX!  If you are going to post software with major
>system dependencies (such as long identifier names) LABEL them in the
>summary, damn it!

Sigh. Here we go again. First things first: you should *not* use long names
that differ in the last few characters. Put the differences in the *front*
of the name, where they are easy to find. That makes for much more readable
code.

Now, back to the flames (ain't they fun!).

Using long names is *not* a system dependency, it's a compiler depenency. My
Lattice/Amiga compiler swallows 31-char names, no problem. How should I tag
those? What about using voids, as some compilers don't support those at all?
How about void *func(), as 4.2BSD doesn't handle it? Function prototyping
(once again, Lattice/Amiga has it)? Structure assignment and friends? Should
we tag *all* of those?

Finally, System V now supports flexnames, and Ultrix has always had it. If
you're not running 4.2BSD or System V, it's your own fault (if you've got a
vendor still selling 4.1, System III or v7, you should change vendors!). If
your vendor hasn't upgraded to the latest version of System V, you should go
shout at them. If you're on a micro, you probably need to buy/should have
bought a better C compiler. But those are usually the compilers that are
going to have more serious problems than lack of long names.

	<mike