Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!spdcc!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: Multibyte character constants????
Keywords: Hackers of the world, unite!
Message-ID: <16993@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 30 Jun 90 17:13:33 GMT
References: <1990Jun28.221927.6823@idt.unit.no>
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 20

In article <1990Jun28.221927.6823@idt.unit.no> arnej@solan1.solan.unit.no writes:
>We have stumbled across the subject of multibyte character constants...

As has been noted, X3J11 has already claimed the word `multibyte' for
something else (and also the term `wide character constant', which might have
been my second choice).  I have coined the term `siamese character constant'
to denote the thing we're talking about here.

>[What is the value of a constant 'AB'?]

Nothing is guaranteed about its value except that the implementation must
document it.  It's extremely likely that, if SCCs are supported at all, then
'AB' will be either 'A'<<CHAR_BIT|'B' or 'A'|'B'<<CHAR_BIT, but I wouldn't be
too surprised by an implementation that punted by making them all have value
zero (with a warning).

Trivium: an old version of stdio supported  putchar('AB');  which would output
both characters.  I had to rewrite the algorithm when we upgraded to V7.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@kelp.ima.isc.com or ima!kelp!karl), The Walking Lint