Wrapping up the first two courses

John Rose john.r.rose at oracle.com
Thu Apr 25 22:05:39 UTC 2019


On Apr 25, 2019, at 2:45 PM, John Rose <john.r.rose at oracle.com> wrote:
> 
> Whether \LineTerminator also gobbles up following
> horizontal space is a separate question.  But if space
> or tab can be escaped, then it's trivial to indicate
> a space or tab that should not be gobbled by \LT.
> You just escape it.  And since LT is a 2D feature,
> it is not wrong to consider allowing it to gobble
> in 2 dimensions.

P.P.S.  I skipped a step here.  If treated *exactly*
like the lexically significant characters " \ then
LineTerminator should escape to *itself*.  It's
a second move to have it escape to something
that provides control over program layout,
by gobbling non-payload space used only
to control format.  Such a move is not forced,
but it is very likely, given that "\n" is already
an escape sequence for a newline, and LineTerminator
also (I assume) is translated to a newline.
Thus, \LineTerminator is (a) a candidate
for escaping given its new status in MLSs,
and (b) a further candidate for use in layout
control, given pre-existing coverage by \n
and common precedent in other languages.


More information about the amber-spec-experts mailing list