[development] 'name' column length in variables

[Khalid B]

> Well, for variables, since most are tied to one module or another why not just
> give them a module namespace?  variable_get('usernodes', 'myvar', $default);
> That does a better job of avoiding name collision than we have now and keeps
> each column shorter.
>
> I'm pretty sure someone had a DEP at one point to rewrite the variable system
> that touched on this.  Whoever it is, I apologize for forgetting your
> name. :-)

It was Adrian, and Allie expanded on it (or the other way round).
I think it tied a realm/domain to the variable, and was called cascading
variables at one point.