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Re: CIF2 syntax document for COMCIFS approval

Hi Herb,

I suggest rewriting CHANGE 7, for example:

==================================================================
CHANGE 7 NEW


Triple-quote delimited strings.

The following ASCII sequences delimit the beginning of a string:

    """
    '''
    r"""
    r'''
    u"""
    u"""

The characters following the delimiter sequence are interpreted
with exactly the same algorithm as implemented for triple-quoted
strings in the Python programming language version 2 series.
In this algorithm, triple-quoted strings are terminated by matching
""" or ''' delimiters.

For example

    """He said "His name is O'Hearly".""" 
    r'''In {\bf \TeX} the accents are \' and \".''' 

Triple-quoted strings provide a reliable mechanism for storing any
arbitrary string in a CIF2 file.

==================================================================

Eventually the reference to Python could be replaced with a full
description of the algorithm, but in my experience such informal
descriptions are never as reliable as an actual implementation,
in particular one that's been around for many years and is used
by millions of people.

Ralf



----- Original Message ----
> From: Herbert J. Bernstein <yaya@bernstein-plus-sons.com>
> To: Discussion list of the IUCr Committee for the Maintenance of the CIF  
>Standard (COMCIFS) <comcifs@iucr.org>
> Sent: Mon, December 27, 2010 8:05:41 PM
> Subject: Re: CIF2 syntax document for COMCIFS approval
> 
> I think we will have enough trouble selling CIF2 at all.
> A split  recommendation will make it that much  harder.


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