Cleanup Issue SHARPSIGN-BACKSLASH-BITS
- Category
- CLARIFICATION
- References
- #\ (p354)
Problem Description
The description of names for characters that has bits gives examples without clearly specifying the meaning of the bit names.Proposal (SHORT-AND-LONG)
It should be clearly stated at the appropriate point (currently on p354) that the names "C" and "CONTROL" mean control, "M" and "META" mean meta, "S" and "SUPER" mean "SUPER", and "H" and "HYPER" mean hyper. It should further specified that these can be mixed and matched, as in "C-META-X".Rationale
We give examples of both styles, so both styles should be well-defined. If these are not going to be well-defined, there's no point in our giving examples of them.Current Practice
Most implementations support both short and long names to back up the bit names that they allow.
Some implementations accept only the short name. Others only the long name.
Adoption Cost
The cost of this change is very small.Benefits
If an input syntax is going to reliably exist, we need to say so.Conversion Cost
User code is not likely to be adversely affected. Most users will likely perceive this as a bug fix.Aesthetics
This doesn't much affect aesthetics one way or the other.Discussion
KMP thinks this is a good idea.Edit History
- Revision 1 by KMP 02/27/87