In message <x7elhb80mj.fsf@capsicum.wsrcc.com>, Wolfgang Rupprecht writes:
>
>optimus@canit.se (Iggy Drougge) writes:
>> Why are BSD device names so terse? 
>
>Tradition?  I guess nobody remembers the old pcc 6 (8 ???) character
>limit for C variable and routine names. (*) If you prepended long
>device names to the routine names you wouldn't have many characters
>left to describe the variable or routine itself.
>
>ethl3o()
>ethl3c()
>ethl3r()
>ethl3w()
>ethl3s()
>
It was 8 characters, not 6.

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb
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