[RFC] Shorter alternative representation for `of'

[Mohammad-Reza Nabipoor]

Hi Jose.

On Sat, Jan 17, 2026 at 03:16:20PM +0100, Jose E. Marchesi wrote:
> 
> However, I propose we should use backslash `\' rather than apostrophe,
> for the following reasons:
> 
> 1. Backslash is also worthy but not currently meaningful ouside strings.
>    Back in the time where they considered using apostrophe, `\' wasn't a
>    worthy character because it wasn't supported in EBCDIC.  But now it
>    is.
> 
> 2. If we use backslash for `of' then it will be natural to use the
>    apostrophe if/when we introduce support for left-to-right selection.
> 
>    So:
> 
>       foo\bar\baz   represents  foo of bar of baz
>       foo'bar'baz   represents  baz of bar of foo
> 
> [Yes I suppose that strictly speaking:
>  - If we use backslash \ then the opposite would be slash /.
>  - If we use quote ' then the opposite would be backquote `.
> 
>  But on one side / is a nomad, so no.


As a side note, I like the idea of left-to-right selection and
I propose `fo' for that (naturally!).

    foo of bar of baz
    baz fo bar fo foo

If / was available for `fo' (which is not), then your proposal of
using \ for `of' would be awesome.

    foo of bar of baz           foo\bar\baz
    baz fo bar fo foo           baz/bar/foo

But, impossible!


So my suggestion is the following (which you probably won't like, but I have to
try!):

    foo of bar of baz           foo'bar'baz
    baz fo bar fo foo           baz!bar!foo


These are visually distinctive.
! is inspired by "bang path" used for uucp command on Unix systems, and implies
traversing the hierarchy from top to bottom.



> PS: the suggestion of ./, also mentioned in AB427 is cute, because it
>     looks like longhand "of".  But it is two characters long.
> 


I'm also OK with this (it's just two characters and not four):

    foo of bar of baz           foo./bar./baz
    baz fo bar fo foo           baz.\bar.\foo

or even better:

    foo of bar of baz           foo./bar./baz
    baz fo bar fo foo           baz\.bar\.foo


Happy algoling!