> 3. All characters in XSH and XBD were changed to no quotes. The use of
> quotes was more confusing than not having them, since sometimes the quotes
> are meaningful. However, this has not yet been done in XCU. During the
> final stages of the last version, we were asked to add quotes to all
> characters in XCU. However, this could never have been done thoroughly on
> an automatic basis (and as it turns out was very badly done) because the
> files were in such a messy state. We have therefore got halfway through
> sorting out this problem during my major recode of XCU. Reversing this
> decision is possible, but we would advise against it.
I think there's a fairly simple way to resolve this one, although it will
definitely take technical reviewers to catch every case:
If the text is intended to be an excerpt of a C program (even if imbedded
in ordinary text) then it should match C syntax exactly. If it's NOT
intended in that way, then it shouldn't. An example (slightly heavy
handed for clarity).
The character constant '\a' is called the alert character. (Quote; use
C syntax.)
The C standard introduced the notation \a ... (No quote... it's not a piece
of code, and is (to me) clearer without the quotes.)
I'm sure there are grey areas, but I strongly suspect that NEITHER answer
is always right, and attempting to make either answer the only one will
only lead to chaos.
Donn
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Softway Systems, Inc. http://www.interix.com
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