6 char externs and the ANSI standard

[John Pierce]

In article <4095 at tekecs.UUCP> joemu at tekecs.UUCP writes:
> Here's another hot issue in the committee. Should the minimum character
> limit for external symbols be longer than 6 chars, case indistinct?
> ...
> I know this topic has been discussed before in this forum, but the
> committee really needs to get a clear sense of the user community on how
> acceptable this limitation is.

It isn't acceptable at all.  Though I don't *really* care.  I've got tools
than that, and I'm loyal enough to the people who pay me that I will use those
tools if they're necessary to reduce the production and maintenance costs of
what I do.  If that means that what I write doesn't meet the standard, that's
too bad.  That doesn't mean I'll deliberately violate it; it just means that
no time will be wasted on worrying about it.  I doubt we will ever retreat to
the 11/40 and "pre-phototypsetter" compiler we started with.

And you're right.  It has been discussed here before.  Endlessly.  I don't
understand why we're going through it again, since it's basically a waste of
disk space and transmission time.  The committee will make whatever decision
is necessary so that everyone can say "My favorite toy, the Blah C Compiler,
meets the ANSII standard - so buy it", without having to spend any money making
it (and its associated linker) into a decent product.

				John Pierce
				{decvax,sdcsvax}!sdchema!jwp