info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (01/08/85)
From: Jerry Bakin <Bakin@HI-MULTICS.ARPA>
This is from the Multics PL/I Language Specification, March '82:
pg 1-1 "The Multics PL/I language is a dialect of the American National
Standard Programming Language PL/I, ANSI X3.56-1976. ... The
languages are so similar that nearly all Multics PL/I programs are
valid programs in standard PL/I."
pg 2-7 "<character-string constant>
::= [(<decimal integer>)]"[<character>]..."
...
Examples:
"abc" "
This is from the VAX-11 PL/I Encyclopedic Reference, November '83:
pg 419 "This appendix describes the differences between the VAX-11
implementation of PL/I and the definition of the PL/I
General-Purpose Subset. The subset (X3.74) is a subset of ANSI
X3.53-1976."
pg 68 "Character-String Constants
When you use character-string constants in a program, you must
enclose the character strings in apostrophes, as shown in the
following examples:
'Total is:' ..."
So, it seems as if both the Multicians and the Vaxxxians (Vaxtronauts?
Maynerds?) thought they were implementing a language similar to PL/I.
However, in something as simple (?) as string constants, they picked
different answers.
Does anyone know which piece of punctuation the ANSI standard calls for
in a string constant?
It doesn't really matter, regardless of whom is correct, I have about
4000 lines of PL/I routines which need a good TECO pass.
Jerry Bakin.
info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (01/08/85)
From: Richard Garland <OC.GARLAND%CU20B@COLUMBIA.ARPA> Standard PL/I: Perhaps more important than ANSI standard is IBM standard for the language (after all they invented it). I'm not one for looking up standards (especially in unreadable IBM manuals) but for years I've programmed in IBM (VM/CMS) PL/I and there you use the apostrophe, not the quotation mark to delimit strings. Rg -------