Re: Inconsistent line endings

[Barry]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Eggert" <address@hidden>


> "Barry" <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > I'll create short sample files to demonstrate this
> > if necessary.
>
> Yes please.  I didn't quite follow the explanation.

I did a "diff -y -W 40" on the files 
http://www.polisource.com/PublicMisc/File1.txt and 
http://www.polisource.com/PublicMisc/File2.txt .

File1.txt contains the text between the lines:
--------------
Line 1
Line 2

Line 3
--------------

File1.txt was created with a Perl script. This is the variable that was 
saved to file1.txt:

$File1 = "Line 1\nLine 2\n\r\nLine 3";

File2.txt is empty.

The diff command produces the expected output, but if you view the ASCII 
code of each character of the diff results, you'll see the following:

76 105 110 101 32 49 9 9 32 32 32 60 10 76 105 110 101 32 50 9 9 32 32 32 60 
10 13 9 9 32 32 32 60 10 76 105 110 101 32 51 9 9 32 32 32 60

There are two interpretations of where the lines break. At first, I thought 
the separate lines were:

76 105 110 101 32 49 9 9 32 32 32 60 10
76 105 110 101 32 50 9 9 32 32 32 60 10 13
9 9 32 32 32 60 10
76 105 110 101 32 51 9 9 32 32 32 60

That would mean the ASCII 13 (carriage return) was being used as the line 
ending for line 2, but I think the correct interpretation is:

76 105 110 101 32 49 9 9 32 32 32 60 10
76 105 110 101 32 50 9 9 32 32 32 60 10
13 9 9 32 32 32 60 10
76 105 110 101 32 51 9 9 32 32 32 60

In which the carriage return is seen as the first character of the third 
line.

Is there some value in including an invisible ASCII 13 in the diff results, 
when it's not even rendered as a carriage return? I think such characters 
should be rendered in the diff results with some special, visible code to 
indicate what's there. Is it there for some terminal that somehow renders 
it?




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