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From: "rob pike, esq." <r@geekmail.cc>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] sam command language
Date: Wed,  8 Oct 2003 08:42:11 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <45a1363e50d95898516db9a4a68174a5@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <D8mdnS85i8qGFB6iU-KYuA@comcast.com>

> rob pike, esq. wrote:
>> ... The double meaning of \ in Unix and especially
>> Perl REs is regrettable at best.
>
> And especially in troff macro diversions.  I recall
> seeing \\\\\\\\ on more than one occasion.

That wasn't the double meaning I was referring to,
but yes.  I meant that \w makes w special but that
\* makes * not special.

Back to troff: in qed, \ was linear.  You added a
backslash to quote something.  In a macro, you
added two backslashes.  In a macro calling a
macro you added three, etc.   Instead of 2^N,
you needed N.

-rob



  reply	other threads:[~2003-10-08 15:42 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 29+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2003-10-07 19:16 Scott Schwartz
2003-10-07 19:20 ` rob pike, esq.
2003-10-08  8:37   ` Douglas A. Gwyn
2003-10-08 15:42     ` rob pike, esq. [this message]
2003-10-09  8:42       ` Douglas A. Gwyn
2003-10-09  9:18         ` Richard Miller
2003-10-09 15:01           ` rog
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2003-10-10  0:26 Dennis Ritchie
2003-10-07  8:58 steve.simon
2003-10-07  9:38 ` Axel Belinfante
2003-10-04  1:53 [9fans] Newbie: life without rio rob pike, esq.
2003-10-06 12:52 ` [9fans] sam command language rog
2003-10-06 15:08   ` Rob Pike
2003-10-06 15:55     ` Jim Choate
2003-10-06 16:35     ` Micah Stetson
2003-10-06 16:41       ` Rob Pike
2003-10-06 16:47         ` Micah Stetson
2003-10-06 18:24         ` boyd
2003-10-07 18:34     ` rog
2003-10-07 18:48       ` rob pike, esq.
2003-10-08 14:44         ` rog
2003-10-08 15:09           ` Jim Choate
2003-10-09  0:52             ` okamoto
2003-10-08 15:46           ` rob pike, esq.
2003-10-09 17:35             ` rog
2003-10-07 20:16       ` vdharani
2003-10-07 18:59         ` Russ Cox
2003-10-08 14:33           ` rog
2003-10-08 14:44             ` Derek Fawcus
2003-10-08 15:27               ` Dan Cross

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