[development] Form field maxlengths vs. database field sizes

This issue stems from Killes' comment [ http://drupal.org/node/46306#comment-71971 ]. Should form field maxlengths be consistent with corresponding database field sizes or should unicode encoding be accounted for? This is especially in light of the fact that 4.7 now converts all existing databases to UTF-8, but also retains support for (MySQL) 3.23.58. Or should we just not use maxlengths at all? Thanks -K P.S Please reply on the issue page: http://drupal.org/node/48510