509?? (Re: Max line length)

[Farrell Woods]

In article <9847 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>In article <2285 at buengc.BU.EDU> bph at buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
>-John Carr and Doug Gwyn both quoted the pANS as requiring compilers to
>-accept at least 509 chars of logical line...

>Rest assured that there were good and sufficient reasons for that
>particular number.  If you had asked politely I might even have
>explained what they were.

Allow me, then, to ask:  (without a whit of sarcasam) Why 509?


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