Re: [Gretl-devel] identifier name length
On Sat, 29 Sep 2012, Allin Cottrell wrote:
On Sat, 29 Sep 2012, Sven Schreiber wrote:
> First a clarification question: So the status quo is that the 15-char
> limit is for (and only for) series and matrices?
No, right now that limit applies to all gretl variables: series,
matrices, scalars, strings, bundles. Function names, however, have
a maximum length of 31 characters.
Thinking about this some more: I'm not implacably opposed to
increasing the length of identifiers for gretl variables. The
obvious change would be from max 15 characters to max 31 (that is,
VNAMELEN = 32).
However, I'm not keen to introduce different sizes for different
types of variable: if we're going to make the change I think it
should be for all types (less confusing both for users and coders).
If we make the change, I'm inclined to do something like Stata does,
namely truncate the names of series when they're too long for sanity
in tabular contexts. Ellipses are all very well, but "..." wastes 3
bytes; I think I'd prefer to truncate at 14 characters and append
"~".
This would require a fair amount of work, but if people think it's
worthwhile we could put it on the agenda for gretl 2.0.
Allin