bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) (03/14/89)
John Carr and Doug Gwyn both quoted the pANS as requiring compilers to accept at least 509 chars of logical line... Huh??? Do X3J11 do their discussing ain between trips to the 7-11 to buy lottery tickets or something? Did they hit the trifecta at Rosemont betting 5-0-9? (probably required themselves to box...:-) --Blair "It is left as an exercise for the compulsive-gambling reader to figure out why the trifecta will never hit."
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) (03/14/89)
In article <2285@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@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...
-Huh???
-Do X3J11 do their discussing ain between trips to the 7-11 to buy
-lottery tickets or something?
-Did they hit the trifecta at Rosemont betting 5-0-9? (probably required
-themselves to box...:-)
Please don't clutter the net with drivel.
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.vevea@paideia.uchicago.edu (Jack L. Vevea) (03/14/89)
In article <9847@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes: > >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. Hmm. Would it help if a third party asked politely? I, and I'm sure many others on the net, can't help but feel a little curiosity. Saepe Fidelis.
bill@twwells.uucp (T. William Wells) (03/14/89)
In article <2285@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@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...
:
: Huh???
I don't know the real reason. But here is a suggestion:
512 (a nice round number :-) - 1 CR - 1 LF - 1 NUL = 509.
In other words, the compiler might have a 512 character buffer and
reserve 3 bytes for the end of line stuff, leaving 509 characters for
the real text.
It's just a guess.
---
Bill
{ uunet | novavax } !twwells!bill
(BTW, I'm going to be looking for a new job sometime in the next
few months. If you know of a good one, do send me e-mail.)davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (03/15/89)
In article <2285@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes: | Do X3J11 do their discussing ain between trips to the 7-11 to buy | lottery tickets or something? | | Did they hit the trifecta at Rosemont betting 5-0-9? (probably required | themselves to box...:-) Think about it... 512 is a power of two. If you want to keep the line length in BCD you need three bytes for that. That leaves 509 for the actual data. Identifiers are 31 characters to leave one byte for length, flags, or whatever. Note that the standard does not require that the length be kept in BCD, you could keep it in binary in two bytes and use a zero terminated string. You could even keep the length in standard metric hexadecimal, because it's implementation dependent. This answer is at least as serious as the question... -- bill davidsen (wedu@ge-crd.arpa) {uunet | philabs}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me
swilson@thetone.Sun.COM (Scott Wilson) (03/15/89)
In article <9847@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes: >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. Now go to bed without your supper. Geez, the guy tries to inject a little humor in this usually humorless place and he's treated like a baby. This kind of stuff reminds me of too many high school teachers who were equally humorless. Ok, Blair, you know what to say: "forgive me Doug for I have sinned...." -- Scott Wilson arpa: swilson@sun.com Sun Microsystems uucp: ...!sun!swilson Mt. View, CA
ftw@masscomp.UUCP (Farrell Woods) (03/15/89)
In article <9847@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes: >In article <2285@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@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? -- Farrell T. Woods Voice: (508) 392-2471 Concurrent Computer Corporation Domain: ftw@masscomp.com 1 Technology Way uucp: {backbones}!masscomp!ftw Westford, MA 01886 OS/2: Half an operating system
prc@maxim.ERBE.SE (Robert Claeson) (03/16/89)
In article <2285@buengc.BU.EDU>, bph@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... > > Huh??? On some weird os'es, the longest line that can be read from a text file is that of a disk block minus one character. Then subtract two characters for the line delimiter (CR-LF on most os'es). This will give you 509 characters. -- Robert Claeson, ERBE DATA AB, P.O. Box 77, S-175 22 Jarfalla, Sweden Tel: +46 (0)758-202 50 Fax: +46 (0)758-197 20 EUnet: rclaeson@ERBE.SE uucp: {uunet,enea}!erbe.se!rclaeson ARPAnet: rclaeson%ERBE.SE@uunet.UU.NET BITNET: rclaeson@ERBE.SE
bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) (03/17/89)
In article <9847@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes: >In article <2285@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@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... >-Huh??? >-Do X3J11 do their discussing ain between trips to the 7-11 to buy >-lottery tickets or something? >-Did they hit the trifecta at Rosemont betting 5-0-9? (probably required >-themselves to box...:-) > >Please don't clutter the net with drivel. > >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. Please don't clutter the net with arrogant pedantry. You could have whined by email. The answers I've received so far indicate that: 5 responses: There is a 512-byte maximum record length and the characters '\r\n\0', in various order, are the three stripped off to make the maximum- allowable-length logical line. This does not explain the arbitrary(?) limit on record length. 1 response: there is a 512-byte maximum record length, apparently imposed because one manufacturer's machines were limited to 512-byte maximum record length, and the three excised bytes were a '\0' and two bytes to indicate the record length. I've asked for more info on that last one. --Blair "Nothing I hate worse than a net-narc. Putz. :-|"
w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb) (03/17/89)
bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) wrote: > John Carr and Doug Gwyn both quoted the pANS as requiring compilers to > accept at least 509 chars of logical line... > > Huh??? 512 less a 3-byte EOL sequence. Consider it to be 512 less CR/LF less 1 for good measure. -- -Colin (uunet!microsoft!w-colinp) "Don't listen to me. I never do." - The Doctor