Six character is (in)famously the maximum length of linker symbols on IBM system... | Hacker News

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		tgv on Feb 16, 2023 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: The IBM 7094 and CTSS Six character is (in)famously the maximum length of linker symbols on IBM systems, at least for FORTRAN. Perhaps that had something to do with it. And of course, there comes a time when you have to pick a number, so why no 6x6, which is also good for 10^10 integers?

vincent-manis on Feb 17, 2023 [–]

6 was the magic number on 700/7000 systems. With System/360, the magic number grew by 1/3, to the magnificent total of 8.

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