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From: Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>
Cc: Kenichi Handa <handa@m17n.org>
Subject: Re: ?\_ patch
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 09:02:04 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20030207140204.GA6530@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5xfzr0i1nx.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk>

On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 03:52:02PM +0100, Kim F. Storm wrote:
> > Because #\SPC is actually pretty self-explanatory whereas ?\s isn't.
> 
> IMO, \s is just as self-explanatory as \t, \n, and \r.

The latter are `self-explanatory' only because they're used in C, and so are
very familar to programmers.  \s is not.

> > I thought about that too, but I think #\SPC is better, because the `\'
> > leaves a bit of whitespace between itself and the following character so
> > the `SPC' stands out quite distinctly.  `?' on the other isn't visually
> > distinct, so #?SPC looks like a bit of a muddle.
> 
> Then what about simply using ?SPC, ?TAB, etc.

No, you're missing the point.  My object to `?' is that the `?' is not
visually distinct from the `S' -- they tend to `run into' each other. 
`\', on the other hand has a bunch of whitespace on the right side of it's
glyph, and so is much more visually distinct from the following character.

So getting rid of the `#' doesn't help at all.

Morever, `#' is _good_ becaues it's the general lisp syntax for special
syntax, so a lisp programmer will be much more likely to realize what's going
on (if he's unfamiliar with this particular bit of syntax) if he sees #\SPC
than if he sees ?SPC.

> Can anyone think of existing code which will be broken by that
> approach?

I don't know, but I think it doesn't matter; we should just use a `#' escape.

-Miles
-- 
I'd rather be consing.

  reply	other threads:[~2003-02-07 14:02 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 43+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2003-02-05 20:10 ?\_ patch Edward O'Connor
2003-02-05 23:31 ` Kenichi Handa
2003-02-06  0:44   ` Luc Teirlinck
2003-02-06  1:06     ` Luc Teirlinck
2003-02-06  1:20       ` Luc Teirlinck
2003-02-06 10:04       ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-06  9:17         ` Miles Bader
2003-02-06 11:48           ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-06 11:37             ` Juanma Barranquero
2003-02-06 17:33             ` Luc Teirlinck
2003-02-07  2:07               ` Miles Bader
2003-02-07  2:53                 ` Luc Teirlinck
2003-02-07  8:34                   ` Miles Bader
2003-02-07  8:56                     ` Kenichi Handa
2003-02-07 14:17                       ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-07 13:28                         ` Miles Bader
2003-02-07 14:52                           ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-07 14:02                             ` Miles Bader [this message]
2003-02-07 14:30                               ` Dmitry Paduchikh
2003-02-07 16:07                                 ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-07 15:53                                   ` John Paul Wallington
2003-02-07 16:50                                     ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-07 16:23                                       ` John Paul Wallington
2003-02-08  1:44                                       ` Miles Bader
2003-02-09  2:07                                         ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-10  1:48                                           ` Miles Bader
2003-02-07 16:09                                   ` Dmitry Paduchikh
2003-02-07 15:51                               ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-07 15:13                                 ` Damien Elmes
2003-02-07 20:20                                   ` Luc Teirlinck
2003-02-09 12:39                               ` Richard Stallman
2003-02-10 10:47                             ` Andreas Schwab
2003-02-07  9:18             ` Richard Stallman
2003-02-07 10:42               ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-07 11:05                 ` Andreas Schwab
2003-02-10 10:35                 ` Richard Stallman
2003-02-10 12:51                   ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-11 22:25                     ` Richard Stallman
2003-02-12 13:00                       ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-13 10:08                         ` Richard Stallman
2003-02-13 14:19                           ` Kim F. Storm
2003-02-06  1:31     ` Kenichi Handa
2003-02-06 10:40       ` Andreas Schwab

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