honey@down.FUN (code 101) (08/23/84)
There is no reason whatsoever to limit host names to six or even seven characters. However, if you are running a Seventh Edition based version of uucp, and if the first seven characters of your host name match the seven character prefix of some other host, you will not be able to talk to one another, nor to a common neighbor running Seventh Ed. code. (The effect of the USG six character mistake is left as an exercise.) My favorite version of uucp (scheduled for release this fall) allows 14 character host names without any of these problems. Peter