"%#s"?

[Henry Spencer]

> It would be nice for printf et al.  to have a %#s format specifier,
> to convert unprintable characters into backslash escapes...
> Has anyone else thought of this?  Is it a good idea?  Can it be put
> in the standard?

Yes.  Probably.  No, it's much too late now.

I came up with this a couple of years ago, although I was more interested
in the input side, i.e. scanf.  I did not end up making a formal proposal
to X3J11 because I am a firm believer (firmer than X3J11!) in the "no
standard without implementation experience" rule, and couldn't point to
any real experience.  Possibly I should have tried; it WOULD be useful.

It is too late to make significant additions to the first C standard now;
the committee very badly wants to get the damn thing out the door, and
will be very unreceptive to any substantive (what's in the language, as
opposed to how it's described) changes unless the situation is clearly a
major emergency.
-- 
"For perfect safety... sit on a fence|  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
and watch the birds." --Wilbur Wright| {ihnp4,decvax,uunet!mnetor}!utzoo!henry