538
NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Lots of older databases had fixed length fields, and you had to pad it if it was smaller.
VARCHAR
is a relatively new thing. So it's not just saving space, but that old databases tended to force the issue.Nobody has an excuse today. Even Cobol has variable length strings.