International UNIX

[foust at gumby.UUCP]

> Yes, we need to be able to have variable names with these characters.
> ANSI C does not allow this, but it allows a representation of nine of
> the abovenamed chars in *trigraph* form: ?? is used as a lead-in to
> define:
> 
> #       [       \       ]       ^       {       |       }       ~
> ??=     ??(     ??/     ??)     ??'     ??<     ??!     ??>     ??-       
> 
> $@` are not used (at the moment) in ANSI C.
> Personally I do not like the choice of ? as lead-in char as it
> is graphically quite dominating, maybe .. was better,
> but the trigraph scheme is quite general and OK to me.
> If we then could use the national chars in variable names, C could
> become a quite useful programming language :-)

But just think what this would do for an international
obfuscated C contest!  Anybody want to translate this year's entries?

-- 
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John Foust
"I used to be disgusted, but now I'm just amused"