[comp.sys.mips] C-like escapes in f77

smw@maxwell ( Steven Winikoff ) (02/23/90)

A couple of days ago, I posted the following:

> A user on our M/120 would like to read a file using f77, but he's having
> a problem with backslashes in the input.
> 
> It seems that MIPS f77 accepts C-style escapes (eg \n, \t, etc., 
> especially including \\); moreover, it interprets these in the input
> stream!  The result, of course, is that this user is losing part of his
> data.

I've since done some more research, and I've discovered that f77 had 
little if anything to do with the real problem.

(Next time I won't be so quick to believe everything users tell me! :-)

In fact the user in question was using Fortran with embedded SQL, under
ingres.  Sure enough, it was ingres that was interepreting escape
sequences and eating part of his data.  f77 is blameless!

(Now if anyone knows how to stop ingres from doing that, please let me
know!)

   - Steven

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven Winikoff                                 smw@maxwell.concordia.ca
Software Analyst
Dept. of Computing services
Concordia University                            voice: (514) 848-7619
Montreal, Quebec, Canada                               (10:00-18:00 EST)