Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!umd5!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: The \c escape
Message-ID: <8127@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 20 Jun 88 09:58:47 GMT
References: <4604@haddock.ISC.COM> <5907@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <8125@brl-smoke.ARPA> <4621@haddock.ISC.COM>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 12

In article <4621@haddock.ISC.COM> karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer) writes:
>Does the nonexistence of a spelling for the character constant '\x234\c5'
>constitute a serious technical error?

Probably not.  Multiple-character character constants are unportable and
considered bad style.  They're only permitted because they were in previous
practice.  Many of us don't think you should ever try to make use of them.

>If not, why does the Standard bother to mention that '\x12\c3' can be
>spelled '\0223'?

Possibly to forestall questions.