🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991May23.164059.8461@m.cs.uiuc.edu> joshi@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Anil Joshi) writes:
   2. In the emacs syntax to represent the period, I need to escape it but
      that is not enough. I need to escape the escape (\\). This is
      totally counter-intuitive (as many things in emacs are). Why o why?

Because what you are typing goes through two layers of interpretation:
(1) the emacs lisp reader reads what you type to produce a string, and
(2) the regexp processor reads the string.

To build a regexp to match the string ".", the regexp processor needs
as input two characters: backslash-period.  But in order to get the
lisp reader to insert a backslash into a string, it needs to be
represented as: backslash-backslash.  Thus, to get the effect you
want, you have to type backslash-backslash-period.

It all comes from using the same escape character for both the lisp
reader and the regexp processor.

Dale Worley		Compass, Inc.			worley@compass.com
--
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
-- William Pitt