Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!oodis01!uplherc!sp7040!obie!wes From: wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Block Closure Message-ID: <177@obie.UUCP> Date: 25 Apr 88 06:26:49 GMT References: <18@ <5200003@uiucdcsm> <3564@haddock.ISC.COM> Organization: the Well of Souls Lines: 22 Summary: Use a special `indent' character? In article <3564@haddock.ISC.COM>, karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer) writes: > In article <5200003@uiucdcsm> wsmith@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >Problems include: handling of multi line expressions and defining default > >tab stops. > > One possible solution: multi-line expressions are only valid in the presence > of a continuation indicator (backslash-newline in C); `tab' is an undefined > (or implementation-defined) character in a source file. The implementation-defined `tab' would probably work well. You would need tools to manipulate (edit & print) source files, but most programmers expect these tools now anyhow. On many systems, tab size is not tied to character-cell size anyhow, especially on bit-mapped screens using proportional fonts. If you use a Swiss or Times font on the screen, "4 character" tabs have no meaning. You would instead insert `indent' characters, and tell the editor or source printer to indent .5" for each indent. -- /\ - "Against Stupidity, - {backbones}! /\/\ . /\ - The Gods Themselves - utah-cs!uplherc! / \/ \/\/ \ - Contend in Vain." - sp7040!obie! / U i n T e c h \ - Schiller - wes