NULL vs 0 - (nf)

[gwyn%brl-vld at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:      Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn at brl-vld>

I sure am glad you requested complaints about flexnames.  My complaint
is that a DEFINITE GUARANTEE is needed as to how many characters in the
long names are checked for uniqueness.  (externs probably still need to
be limited to 6 chars with case ignored.)  Otherwise this feature will
interfere with writing portable code.  For example,
	int	xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxyxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
	int	xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxzxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
Are these going to be guaranteed to be distinct identifiers in the new
C language standard?  What if there were 50 x characters?  100?  It is
not possible to write portable code without some guarantee about this.

Another drawback to flexnames is that the portable programmer cannot
use them until they are covered by the language standard.  At present,
C compilers often support only the 8 chars promised in the K&R book.