FAUX CODE

[chet.gottfried@xxxxxxxx]

XY-> > I want to stress that the caveat on manual editing is meant to be much

 -> Robert J. Holmgren:

XY-> Carl, I haven't seen your PM yet, but I wonder whether the potential
 -> problems don't outweigh the benefits. It seems to me that in
 -> communicating XPL to another person or computer, one wants to
 -> eliminate as many opportunities for misunderstanding as possible.
 -> If someone who didn't write the XPL, and very likely doesn't understand
 -> it, is going to have to edit it manually to get it to work, and
 -> moreover may be unable to fix it if it malfunctions, then I think the
 -> question is whether it has value. I can think of many exotic, but
 -> nowadays quite commonplace, strings that are going to be darn difficult
 -> to fauxcode & transmit in the clear over a 7-bit data link (assuming
 -> that's the purpose). So: why not leave the XPL as-is, and just ship
 -> it with XXencode or MIME? All you lose is the opportunity to eyeball
 -> crippled code in your mail reader. Whereas you gain the real
 -> thing!

Basically, Robert, you've answered you own question. Rather than
taking the minute as a separate operation to download the files
to check them out, you're engaging in a theoretical question.

The value of such an XPL is that it renders code immediately
accessible.

Second, there's nothing "exotic, but nowadays quite commonplace"
because XPL is anything but commonplace. It would be more
interesting to see the troublesome code lines than wondering
whether they'd translate.

Third, since the same XPL both codes and uncodes, it's a simple
matter to see how successful the translation would be.

Fourth, there's precious little about Xy 4 XPL; a comparison
between Carl's Xy 3+ and 4 versions is *very* instructive quite
apart from its own functionality.

Fifth, fauxcode may encourage more people to post code or code
examples, because doing so becomes quite simple. Having trouble
with a help frame? Why not post a sample. It need not be finished
or require permanent file status.

And so on.

--Chet

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 ? SLMR 2.1a ? Art + write + dtp = chet.gottfried@xxxxxxxx