External names

Language Environment supports external names such as files, programs, and data structures in the same manner as the host system. External names are limited to eight SBCS characters. No supported host system permits DBCS names.

Some languages permit longer names to be used when referring to externally named objects. In order to conform to the host system requirements, each language can use an algorithm to convert a long internal name to a shorter name that is acceptable to the host system.

Language Environment does not define a common naming convention or name conversion algorithm. Users are responsible for ensuring that names are not ambiguous when long names are converted. External and internal forms of names must match after conversion to a shorter form of the name.