Re: C String Prefix Operator Idea (Was: gfortran diagnostics and so on)

Hello,

Gary Scott wrote:
> glen herrmannsfeldt wrote:
>
>> jamesgiles@xxxxxxx wrote:

>>> So, string "literals" are not only *not* literal (meaning
>>> the same as their appearance) but aren't even compile-time
>>> constants anymore? And that's "a minor extension"?
>
> Fairly minor, you still have existing literals processed exactly as
> expected. Special processing only by application of special syntax.

I think control characters and graphic characters are rather different.
Graphic characters may be displayed via a single graphic in source text.
Control characters cannot. Being capable of being a part of source code
in a one-to-one way, seems to me to be fairly fundamental.

A general substitution procedure means to take one set of graphic
characters and replace them by another set of graphic characters
when they appear in a third set of graphic characters. That's rather
different from processing control characters.

Fortran doesn't handle control characters in any systematic way.
I think that's a shortcoming of Fortran, but I've lost that battle
every time I've tried to do something about it.

> I wasn't intending to limit to compile time only. This type of
> substitution already exists in many products I use. It is extremely
> useful. Yes, it would require some run-time support. Come on guys,
> show a little imagination.

A programmer may already use the c_<cc> (where <cc> names a control
character) constants. They may be used to insert the most frequently
used control characters into graphic strings as needed.

Defining a new category of character is a major undertaking,
it's not a matter of a lack of imagination. And a proposed syntax
doesn't change that. What, exactly, are the semantics to be supported
by the proposed syntax? That is, what, exactly are the semantics
of the new category of character?

--

Dan Nagle
Purple Sage Computing Solutions, Inc.
.

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