We have been free of that limit technically since Mac OS 9, but the Finder itself didn't support 31+ until the Mac OS X Public Beta was released in 2000.
The only programs that still limit 31 character names for saving are those really really bad Carbon apps whose developers are so lazy they should be taken into the street and flogged to death with sour fettucini noodles.
All of the Microsoft apps fall into this category.
Sadly, so does QuickTime Player.
Everything else I have on OS X works great with 31+ character file names.
Why does Word (and other office apps, I suppose), add in #119nf3nd (not that particular set of numbers, but just garbled crap) at the end of a file name if the filename is more than 31 characters? Shouldn't it just truncate it?
Comments
The only programs that still limit 31 character names for saving are those really really bad Carbon apps whose developers are so lazy they should be taken into the street and flogged to death with sour fettucini noodles.
All of the Microsoft apps fall into this category.
Sadly, so does QuickTime Player.
Everything else I have on OS X works great with 31+ character file names.