Re: Escapes (was String-Based Macro Systems)

ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:

\n  - backslash /gives/ significance to n
\"  - backslash /removes/ the significance of the double quote
That inconsistency does seem odd.

This "inconsistency" here only stems from how you've worded
it above. You could phrase it differently, and then the
"inconsistency" would vanish.

  Take for instance:

  The standard meaning of "n" is the letter,
  the standard meaning of the quotation mark is delimitation.

  The backslash consistently imparts a special meaning deviating
  from that standard meaning in each case.