Re: sort -b also ignores tabs

[The Wanderer]

On 12/28/2005 01:01 PM, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:

> > Perhaps it would be more clear to say "whitespace" instead. Or are
> > there types of whitespace other than 'spaces, tabs and newlines',
> > which do not get ignored?
>
> I think the locale comes into play here too, so saying anything
> specific would be wrong.

That may be, and if so the suggestion is withdrawn.

> And what is the difference between `blank' and `whitespace'?  I don't
> see it...

The former could be interpreted as "a single blank", which could then
map very easily onto "a single space" (since no other form of whitespace
produces a single column's worth of change), but there is no such thing
as "a single whitespace" in intuitive interpretation; "whitespace" is a
collective noun.

(May I also say, you have one of the stranger forms of quoting I've ever
encountered.)

--
      The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.