Re: hexadecimal escape sequences

[Paul Eggert]

On 01/01/2011 10:14 AM, Bruno Haible wrote:

> So that compiler did not understand '\a'.

quotearg.c used to support pre-C89 compilers that did not understand
'\a', using a configure-time test for HAVE_C_BACKSLASH_A, but that
support was withdrawn in 2002, because we were assuming C89 compilers
by then.  See:

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git;a=commitdiff;h=cb7716e2ff4d52dace03c03d245749e42009c243

> It looks like the problem has not been seen in the last 1-2 years, so
> I'd say, let's consider it a problem of the past.

I agree.  C89 requires support for \x escapes in character
strings and constants, and gnulib assumes C89, so let's
leave this one alone.  Even in the 2005 thread that you cited, the
bottom line was "You don't stand a prayer with the Bundled compiler;
it is really only intended to build kernels and only understands K&R
syntax."  And as of GCC 3.4 (released 2004), even GCC itself cannot be
built with this ancient compiler: you are supposed to build GCC with
either HP's unbundled compiler, or with an earlier GCC.  We can
safely ignore that HP compiler for the purposes of gnulib.