Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!gatech!hao!ames!amdahl!nw From: nw@amdahl.amdahl.com (Neal Weidenhofer) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Stop adding types, Let's remove Trigraphs instead!! Message-ID: <6603@amdahl.amdahl.com> Date: Wed, 13-May-87 22:10:38 EDT Article-I.D.: amdahl.6603 Posted: Wed May 13 22:10:38 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 16-May-87 07:31:39 EDT References: <7264@brl-adm.ARPA> <734@sdchema.sdchem.UUCP> <293@osupyr.UUCP> <879@eneevax.UUCP> Organization: Amdahl Corp, Sunnyvale CA Lines: 46 Summary: Trigraphs are NOT for the benefit of archaic terminals In article <879@eneevax.UUCP>, chuck@eneevax.UUCP (Chuck Harris) writes: > 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...). I know this has been discussed before but, in case you missed it, trigraphs have nothing to do with archaic terminals. They were put in so that people with Non-English terminals could use C. Many languages use our same alphabet with a few added "letters" (typically letters with some kind or other of accent marks added on. French, for example, can put "`" or "'" over "A", "E", "a", or "e"--eight "letters" that English and ANSI don't have.) Terminals (as modern as any) in the countries that speak these languages use the codes that we use for "{", "}", "|", etc. to represent these extra "letters". >??=include >main() >??< > printf("Hello World??/???/n"); >??> is much to be preferred over: e`include main() E` printf("Hello World?e'"); E' Unfortunately, our terminals won't overstrike so you'll have to imagine the ` and ' on top of the e's they follow in my example. The correspondences were also picked at random and probably are not accurate. > Chuck Harris > C.F. Harris - Consulting The opinions expressed above are mine (but I'm willing to share.) Regards, Blame it on Neal Weidenhofer the Rolling Stones ...{hplabs|ihnp4|seismo|decwrl}!amdahl!nw Amdahl Corporation 1250 E. Arques Ave. (M/S 316) Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3470 (408)737-5007