Taming Ascii-10

[Carl Distefano 70154.3452@xxxxxxxx]

Harry: There was a stray EXit statement in CrLf.PM, which is why it appeared to "hang".
(Thanks, Annie, for pointing that out!) Here it is again, sans the error (for which,
apologies):

  -> I don't see how [CrLf.PM] *could* work given that you are using the
  -> symbol for ascii 10 that doesn't work in 4.016 on the
  -> commandline. The downpointing arrow in the red box seems to
  -> be an ascii 25 (19hex).

It'll work. (Try it.) The Ascii-10 symbol that you were putting on the
CMline will flag a 3-byte Ascii-10 "look-alike" in text, not a true 1-byte
Ascii-10 line feed. (Hitting Ctrl-Alt-Shift 10 produces the 3-byter, not the real thing.)
As far as I know (and Robert can say authoritatively when he returns), you can't put a
usable 1-byte Ascii-10 on the CMline. You
_can_, however, put a real 1-byte Ascii-10 in text; ergo, you can compose an XPL statement
(BX se [10]Q2 , where [10] is the "real thing") that will successfully flag line feeds.

The down-arrow wildcard has nothing to do, at the byte level, with Ascii-10 or Ascii-25.
It's a 3-byte character consisting of Ascii 255+192+153. Functionally, as Doug reminded
us, it's XyWrite's proxy character for
Ascii-10 on the CMline, analogous to the CrLf wildcard (usually mapped to
Ctrl-Enter) that flags carriage returns (Ascii 13+10).

In theory, the down-arrow wildcard should work in XPL, too; but in my tests it's erratic,
at least in BX commands. (You don't want to get into archaic
BC ... XC's in 4/Win XPL; they're sloooow!) The procedure in CrLf.PM, by contrast, is
fast and rock solid.

Annie asked privately about the use of CH rather than CI. In Xy4|XyWin, the two commands
are interchangeable; they operate identically. Personally, I never saw the utility of the
CH-CI distinction in earlier versions. Even on an 8086, the CHanges scrolled by so
quickly that any putative opportunity for visual confirmation was slight. I presume that
this was the rationale for abolishing the difference in v4.

So what _was_ your question, Harry?

--------------
Carl Distefano
70154.3452@xxxxxxxx