Max line length (was Re: programming challenge ...)

[Guy Harris]

>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."