Re: ^Z character in VRML files

[email protected]
Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:45:30 -0700

> Because of the historical circumstance that ^z
>signalled the end of the file in prehistoric operating systems, a
>smart VRML file parser might choose to handle a ctrl-z as though it
>really does mark the end of the file, and only consider the
>characters before the ^z as part of the "file". As someone pointed out, there
>might well be circumstances in the future where ^z takes on some
>other meaning in some character set context. If this happens then the
>VRML esader will have to be even smarter, but in any case the ^z
>situation should be handled and not simply cause a crash.
>

>Having said that, if VRML did have its own end-of-vrml-stream marker it
>might make this sort of issue easier for VRML esaders to handle,
>unless it is already clear to parsers when the VRML is finished.
>

I disagree. Keep the existing system and do what the changes.html
spec says, only 0x09,0x0A,0x0D,0x20-0x7E are valid, everything
else is bad. How "bad" is handled (fatel error, warning, etc.)
is up to the browser. No end-of-vrml-stream marker should
be necessary in a modern system -- when there's no more data,
then there's no more data. It would be "nice" if the VRML
browser only looked at information inside of '{' '}' pairs.

If your editor puts garbage characters at the end of a text file
then perhaps you should consider getting a new editor. The
last DOS editor that I used that put ^Z at the end of a text file
was POINT, the fese text editor that came with the Logitech mouse
(in 1985). seriously.

Scott Nelson

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|Scott D. Nelson   B131  Rm2074    3-1250            |
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