From: Paul F. Dietz
Subject: (prin1 #\Space)
Date: 
Message-ID: <rtidnTHWEL5Ax9fd4p2dnA@dls.net>
According to CLtS, section 22.1.3.2:

(in discussing printing of characters when printer escaping is enabled)

    For the graphic standard characters, the character itself is always used
    for printing in #\ notation---even if the character also has a name[5].

Graphic characters are defined in the glossary:

    graphic adj. (of a character) being a ``printing'' or ``displayable''
    character that has a standard visual representation as a single glyph,
    such as A or * or =. Space is defined to be graphic. Of the standard
    characters, all but newline are graphic.

Therefore, (prin1 #\Space) should print #\   ; <-- a space after the \

However, every implementation I've examined prints #\Space.  Was the latter
the intended behavior?

	Paul
From: Barry Margolin
Subject: Re: (prin1 #\Space)
Date: 
Message-ID: <barmar-F465EC.21564306032004@comcast.ash.giganews.com>
In article <······················@dls.net>,
 "Paul F. Dietz" <·····@dls.net> wrote:

> According to CLtS, section 22.1.3.2:
> 
> (in discussing printing of characters when printer escaping is enabled)
> 
>     For the graphic standard characters, the character itself is always used
>     for printing in #\ notation---even if the character also has a name[5].
> 
> Graphic characters are defined in the glossary:
> 
>     graphic adj. (of a character) being a ``printing'' or ``displayable''
>     character that has a standard visual representation as a single glyph,
>     such as A or * or =. Space is defined to be graphic. Of the standard
>     characters, all but newline are graphic.
> 
> Therefore, (prin1 #\Space) should print #\   ; <-- a space after the \
> 
> However, every implementation I've examined prints #\Space.  Was the latter
> the intended behavior?

Probably not, although I can't see how it makes much of a difference.

-- 
Barry Margolin, ······@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***