Length of data names

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ subject ][ author ]

OK, it's about time that someone started posting to this list, so here 
goes....

In the original CIF standard, data names are restricted to 32 characters,
but many of the names in mmCIF are longer than this. The longest ones are
45 characters, and are in the STRUCT_SHEET_HBOND category. The absolute
limit on data name lengths is 80 characters (not 75, since the dictionary
itself is not a CIF, and so its save frame headers are not subject to
CIF's 80 character limit for a line). 

Does COMCIFS have a policy to restrict the lengths of data names to less
than 80 characters? This is important, becuase of the freedom to use local
data names. Even if software ignores data names which are not in the
standard dictionary, it will, in general, still be necessary to read the
name into a character array during the lexical analysis phase of 
processing the file.

Regards,
Peter.

========================================================================
Peter Keller.            \ 
Dept. of Biology and      \ "Not even the greatest nonsense is beyond
    Biochemistry,          \  the reach of human invention."
University of Bath,         \ 
Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.           \          --- Ryszard Kapuscinski
------------------------------\-----------------------------------------
Tel. (+44/0)1225 826826 x 4302 | Email: P.A.Keller@bath.ac.uk (Internet)
Fax. (+44/0)1225 826449        |   P.A.Keller%bath.ac.uk@UKACRL (BITNET)
========================================================================