Use a separate length field at CCK field edit page. Normally it does not break backwards compatibility, but
allows you to set CCK limit to unlimited and let maxlength correctly counts the chars (taking care of newlines for example)

Code style, overused defined constants, split code to inc to save memory, better comments, removed not used permission

#963352 - Maxlength shows negative amount instead of zero
#471138 by swentel - Remaining Characters not working after failed submission
#715374 by Odd Hill and me - MaxLength not working on a CCK TextArea field
#941914 by omerida - Should only alter the title and body elements if present
#808598 by jpmckinney - JavaScript error when using content profile