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From: Jeffrey Carter <spam.jrcarter.not@spam.not.acm.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada standard and maximum line lengths
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2013 09:42:51 -0700
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Date: 2013-01-28T09:42:51-07:00
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On 01/28/2013 01:05 AM, Niklas Holsti wrote:
> On 13-01-28 08:28 , Jeffrey Carter wrote:
>
>> But since the maximum line
>> length chosen by a compiler also defines the maximum identifier length
>> accepted by the compiler,
>
> Why? I don't see anything in the ARM quote that requires this. The
> limits on the line length and lexical element length are independent,
> although they minimum happen to have the same minimum value.

This isn't addressed directly in the quote. An identifier is a sequence of 
characters from certain classes, terminated by a delimiter; a line terminator is 
a delimiter. In the absence of another restriction on identifier length, clearly 
an identifier cannot be longer than the maximum line length.

> A compiler could have 200 characters as the maximum lexical element and
> identifier length, but accept lines of any length, couldn't it?

Presumably it could. I thought efficiency in compiling was the reason behind 
limiting identifier length (being able to build efficient compilers is one of 
the constraints on the ARG), but Duff's comments in this thread lead me to doubt 
that.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it."
Annie Hall
42