Re: backslash whitespace newline

[Howard Hinnant <howard dot hinnant at gmail dot com>]

On Oct 26, 2005, at 6:50 PM, Robert Dewar wrote:

> > The problem is that it's portable to every other compiler we've
> > tested. I am curious what icc and xlc do, but those are the only
> > two not tested.
>
> Sorry, I have a different meaning of portable, for me the term is
> related to the standard, meaning that standard conforming compilers
> are required to process the code correctly.
>
> "Happens to work on (some/most/all) compilers" is not the same
> thing at all for me. COmpetent programmers write portable code
> by knowing what the standard requires, not by trial and error :-)

I couldn't agree with you more on that statement.  But I'll follow it  
up with:  competent tool writers make their tools so robust that even  
incompetent programmers have trouble abusing them.

Now I know that no tool is fool proof.  We all know the fools are  
getting more clever every year.  But here is a little thing we could  
do to make our tool a little more fool proof.

-Howard