SNDINFO and longer sound names?

Do I really have to use eight character file names (IE MenuMove) Menu or is there some way to use things without renaming dozens of sound files in a PK3? It'd be great if I can use a filename like MenuNotification instead of shortening it to MenuNote.

You can, but you need to specify the path to the file along with its extension:

imp/melee "sounds/path/to/sound/impmeleeattack.ogg"

Oh, that would be a pain if I have to do this and add 5+ to a $random string. I don't see why not adding support for long filenames without needing to specify the full path.

$random works with logical names, not lump names, so just assign short logical names to those long path+lump names. In fact, the only time when you ever need to write down the path+lump name is when you define its logical name, which is typically only once.