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Last update: 20 April,2001

								1003.2-92  #51

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	Interpretation Number:	XXXX
	Topic:			beautify, bf
	Relevant Sections:	5.10.7.5.4
	Classification:		Defect


Interpretation Request: (Defect Report)
-----------------------

Reference: Page 536, Section 5.10.7.5.4, "beautify, bf"

Was it the intent of the POSIX 1003.2 standard to change historic
practice by requiring that beautify affect text read in from files?

Historic practice is as follows, if the beautify option is set.

In ex mode, keys which were not already specially handled, that were
less than an ASCII space or were the del (0177) key, and were neither
a tab nor a form-feed, and were read in from a COMMAND file, were
discarded.  When the first ^H was discarded a message was written to
the terminal.  Quoting (a \) would keep the keys from being discarded.

In vi mode, keys which were not already specially handled, that were
less than an ASCII space or were the del (0177) key, and were neither
a tab nor a form-feed, and were entered in input mode (either to the
edit buffer or to the colon command line), were discarded.  Quoting
(a ^V) would keep the keys from being discarded.

I would suggest wording it such that implementations are permitted to
interpret different sets of special keys, and that any keys that are
not quoted, which are not specially interpreted, and for which iscntrl()
returns true, are discarded.

(Keith Bostic			bostic@cs.berkeley.edu)


IEEE Interpretation for 1003.2-1992 
-----------------------------------

        The standard states the behavior required and
        conforming implementations shall conform to this.

        Concerns about the wording of this part of the standard have
        been forwarded to the sponsor.
     

Rationale for Interpretation:
-----------------------------
None
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