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From: chuck@eneevax.UUCP (Chuck Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Stop adding types, Let's remove Trigraphs instead!!
Message-ID: <879@eneevax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-May-87 15:23:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: eneevax.879
Posted: Tue May 12 15:23:47 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 16-May-87 01:54:38 EDT
References: <7264@brl-adm.ARPA> <734@sdchema.sdchem.UUCP> <293@osupyr.UUCP> <18598@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: chuck@eneevax.umd.edu.UUCP (Chuck Harris)
Organization: Elec. Eng. Dept., U of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Lines: 35

All this talk about adding different types might lead one to conclude that
nothing reasonable can be done in "c".  Bullbeep!!  If you really want
all the features that C++ has, USE C++!!

Seriously, why did ANSI decide to add trigraphs to the standard?
For those of you who entered late, ANSI decided that we all of us
who have modern terminals wouldn't mind "Escaping" all of our question marks
so "c" can be used on model 33 teletypes (You know kerchunk..kerchunk...).

in ansi:     '??=' -> '#'
             '??(' -> '['
	     '??/' -> '\'
	     '??)' -> ']'
	     '??'' -> '^'
	     '??<' -> '{'
	     '??!' -> '|'
	     '??>' -> '}'
	     '??-' -> '~'

so that simple programs can look like:

??=include <stdio.h>
main()
??<
	printf("Hello World??/???/n");
??>

A lovely sight to be seen?
Looks almost as clear as pascal (oooh!..cheap shot).
I can think of much better ways to waste time in a lexer than trigraphs.

Let's become more modern with ANSI, not more archaic.

		Chuck Harris
		C.F. Harris - Consulting