Re: No more 8-character limit?

On Sun, 28 Mar 2010, Tony Mechelynck wrote:

> On 28/03/10 21:30, Benjamin R. Haskell wrote:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > Even in the standard runtime files, 298 of 1117 '.vim' files have names
> > that don't fit into 8.3.
> >
> > ((
> > find ~/hg/vim/runtime -name '?????????*.vim' | wc -l
> > vs.
> > find ~/hg/vim/runtime -name '*.vim' | wc -l
> > ))
> >
> > It just seems silly to continue to follow this arbitrary restriction
> > based on historical systems that: 1. aren't still in common use, and
> > 2. already *have* to work around the issue anyway to use the
> > standard set of runtime files.
> >
>
> Some of these (such as, let's say,
> lang/menu_english_united_kingdom.ascii.vim -- no kidding) are only
> needed on systems where the 8.3 limitation doesn't apply (in this case
> en_GB localized Windows systems). I'm not sure about them all, though.

There are 49 in the runtime/syntax/ directory (for example) that aren't
due to i18n reasons.

> If you publish a plugin which cannot be used on 8.3 systems, then I
> suppose you're free to use any name (though if you decide to use a
> 6000-character name I guess some people won't be happy ;-) ). In the
> general case though, I guess the motto "Be liberal in what you accept,
> conservative in what you send" still applies, for maximum portability.

That's the first counter-argument I've almost agreed with. If it
weren't already the case that the standard runtime has the problem, I'd
agree with that rephrasing of Postel's principle.

As it is, though, systems that can't handle >8 already have to work
around the issue, so there's no reason to impose the arbitrary limit on
sensible systems.

Out of curiosity, is there something in the build scripts that works
around the issue? Or is it handled at runtime? Or do 8-character-limit
systems just miss out on some functionality?

--
Best,
Ben

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