Re: RFI: Trailing blanks

[Akim Demaille]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Eggert <address@hidden> writes:

Paul> Sorry, I don't quite follow: are you worried that users will
Paul> often write awk programs that generate configure scripts?

More precisely any kind of Autom4te input file.  But it doesn't really
matter, I was looking for inert characters, and & is not.  But it
doesn't really matter, since anyway @ for a start is already special
for some tools, typically Perl.

Paul> Unless I'm missing something, I don't think it'll be much of a
Paul> problem in practice.  People who play with regular expressions
Paul> have to learn the syntax.

:P

:)

Paul> I should give some credit to the @&t@ pun.  The "&" is my own
Paul> invention, but the "t" came from the source code of the ALGOL68C
Paul> compiler, written by Steve Bourne (of Bourne shell fame), 

Is there is any place where I could actually make my education and
learn such things?  I mean, I have a great deal of respect for Algol
68, but I know very little about its history.  Algol is responsible
for the CS quote that makes me ROTFLMAO each time I just think about
it.

     Algol 60 was an improvment on most of its successors
                                 -- C. A. R. Hoare


Paul> I don't know where he got "mt" from: it could have been his own
Paul> invention, and I suppose it could have been a common pun around
Paul> the Cambridge University computer lab at the time.

Thanks for all these details.  I hope you don't mind they become Perl
comments in autom4te :)