Re: [Groff] [Heirloom] bug in '.if' string comparison tests

[Carsten Kunze]

> I've found another bug in Heirloom troff (with ^G being the
> control character, "Ctrl+V + Ctrl+G" in vim):
> 
> .do xflag 3
> .if "A"A" .tm A is like A
> .if  ^GB^GB^GB .tm B is like B
> .char " "\|
> .if "A"A" .tm A is like A
> .if ^GB^GB^GB .tm B is like B
> 
> Output "A is like A" and "B is like B" only once.

Is'nt there a B too much? I mean would

.if ^GB^GB^G .tm B is like B

not be better than

.if ^GB^GB^GB .tm B is like B

> I've recently seen the usage of the ^G character as field
> separator. That is a good idea, since it should avoid most
> possible conflicts with user input. But does anyone know
> what does this character means, and why does it seems to be
> prefered to other control characters ?

Maybe to avoid problems with strings which contain ' or ".
' as separator is much better readable....