Re: linefeed ^L symbol

[Giorgos Keramidas]

On 11 Dec 2007 16:41:56 GMT, Tyler Smith <tyler.smith@mail.mcgill.ca> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've just reinstalled Emacs 22.1 from source on Debian Lenny. I notice
> now that ^L shows up here and there, presumably where a newline should
> be. Does this mean I've messed something up something in the config? I
> shouldn't be seeing escape characters like this should I?
>
> Examples:
> From the Paragraph Start customize variable window:
> Paragraph Start: Hide Value \|[      ]*$\|.* wrote:$\|.* wrote:$
>
> The actual value of this variable is:
> "\f\\|[       ]*$\\|.* wrote:$\\|.* wrote:$\\|.* wrote:$\\|.* wrote:$"
>
> I'm also confused as to why I should have \f in there to begin with,
> since I think Unix-like systems use \n instead?

You are a bit confused.  ^L is not `line feed', but a different
character (with ASCII code 12 instead of 10).  It is commonly
represented by the C-like escape sequence "\f" in strings...

To see more information about the ^L character, type in a scratch buffer
the following:

    C-q C-l

Then move the point to that character and type `C-u C-x =' :)