Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ucsd!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hp-ses!hpcuhb!hpda!hpcupt1!hpirs!wk
From: wk@hpirs.HP.COM (Wayne Krone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: Strange IFS in HP-UX 2.1 /bin/sh
Message-ID: <4640012@hpirs.HP.COM>
Date: 12 Feb 89 06:24:22 GMT
References: <13@pttdis.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 15

> Since our upgrade from hpux 1.2 to 2.1 the IFS character in 
> the bourne shell has changed from the normal TAB, SPACE, NEWLINE
> to TAB, SPACE, \240, NEWLINE.

> My question is WHY has HP introduced this behaviour?

For HP's 8-bit character code sets 0240 is the "alternative space"
character.  It is primarily used in right-to-left languages (such
as Arabic) as a right-to-left space (as opposed to 040 which is a
left-to-right space.

Were you just curious or is this causing a problem for you that we
should know about?

Wayne Krone