From: "Thomas Mueller" <tmueller AT bluegrass DOT net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: strange character in the source code
Date: 18 Nov 2002 08:01:43 GMT
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Tonu Aas <tonu AT ids DOT ee> wrote:
>> It quite certainly isn't.  0xa0 has nothing to do with newlines.

> Maybe it is some useful character in other language.  For example a'
> And why you assume that all people using US character set ?

Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de) responded:

> I don't.  But the OP noted that this 0xa0 always occured in conjuntion
> with SPACE characters.  A mail-client that inserted an a-accent-aigu or
> whatever letter in front of spaces would be even more broken than
> what I assumed.  I.e. I gave that mailer some benefit of the doubt...

Generally in a DOS or OS/2 text editor, ASCII 160 (0xa0) shows as lower-case a
with acute accent, and it sure looks strange when I see those characters
serving some other strange purpose in an email message.  I think 0xa0 is used
as a non-line-breaking space, think also some other upper-ASCII characters are
sometimes used in nonstandard ways in email messages.  Compilers of course
don't understand this nonsense, and the software I currently use is not
capable of surreptitiously adding these strange characters, though I can add
these characters if desired using Alt+decimal code on numeric keypad.