On    Thu,     3    Oct    1996    11:20:03     -0700    Eric    Paul-Hus
<[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>Now, correct me if I'm wrong: In a  far away time when I learned (only a
>tiny bit) about JCL  they told me that the "/" command  type of line was
>limited to an  80 bytes fixed length record. LISTSERV  uses that kind of
>command for remote mail operation. I maybe confusing thing
 
The VM version of LISTSERV can support destination addresses of up to 64k
characters minus the length of 'MAIL FROM:<>' or 'RCPT TO:<>' or whatever
line the address appears in. In most  cases your MTA will be limited to a
much smaller length. The 80 byte limit for the address was chosen because
this is  the width of a  traditional terminal. So, when  editing the list
file on VM  you saw the list  info in columns 1-80, and  the options were
hidden in columns 81-100. It was  convenient. We could argue all day long
about the "right" size  for the address field, but it  is a compromise of
disk  space  and  RAM  usage  vs number  of  users  inconvenienced.  Most
addresses are 30 bytes or less and  very few exceed 80 bytes. Maybe 90 or
100 bytes would be better, but  then you'll find an address that requires
110 bytes, and  if you had 110 bytes  you'd find a 120 bytes  one, and so
forth. The  question is how many  addresses are affected? The  DNS allows
domains to have up to 255 characters :-)
 
  Eric