• @steventhedev
    link
    357 months ago

    Older C compilers would truncate a variable name if it was too long, so VeryLongGlobalConstantInsideALibraryInSeconds might accidentally collide with VeryLongGlobalConstantInsideALibraryInMinutes.

    Legend says that they used to do it after a single letter with Dennis declaring “26 variables ought to be enough for anyone”.

    • @olutukko
      link
      87 months ago

      I had this problem in my job as a drafter. I was wondering why the hell Tekla would complain about the same object name already being in use despite everything having its own name. took me way too long to realize there wad some stupidly max name length and the program did nothing to alarm the user about trying to put too long name. it just cut the overflow away.