I agree that the cake has been baked. A different recipe/receipt might have been used to advantage, but it is now too late for that.
That said, the convention that the length of an identifier (plus one for its prefixed ampersand) determines the maximal possible length of its values is a bizarre one. Worse, it suggests (but does not of course prove) that a naif storage-overlay-reuse scheme figures in the implementation. Things like this do of course happen in all organizations of any size, not just IBM. Moreover, while ugly, this scheme is not catastrophic. Once understood, it is easy enough to spoof. My "Leave him|her to heaven" was indeed intended to suggest some sympathy for the designer(s). The ghost, be it recalled, urged Hamlet to avenge his death, but he added "Against thy mother aught: leave her to Heaven" because Gertrude's guilt was not clear. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - US ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
