> Let's learn from our earlier mistakes and do it right in the > new incarnation. Ok, fair! > 1. In text mode, the values are shown one-item-per-line, even if > the value has embedded LF in it. At least we assume that the > values do not contain a NUL byte. > > 2. If a value does not have LF or double-quote in it, it is output > literally. > > 3. Otherwise, the value is shown with quote_c_style(). Hmmm, ok. So, I if I understood it correctly, is your idea to keep the same functionality but using quote_c_style to keep one field per line? > The implication of which is that a loosely written program that does > not grok funny values (namely, a string that contains a double-quote > or a line-feed) can be written loosely without having to worry about > quoting and assume one-line-per-item. They may show a wrong value, > but at least because one-line-per-item assumption holds, their > input/request and value they receive from the program will not go > out of sync. And a more carefully written program can of course > check the first byte to see if it is a double-quote, in which case > they have to unquote the whole line (which may yield a multi-line > value if the quoted string had embedded "\n"s). Thanks again, Junio!
