From: "Thomas Mueller" <tmueller AT bluegrass DOT net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: if
Date: 7 Nov 2002 08:06:44 GMT
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James Patterson <jp20 AT tinyworld DOT co DOT uk> wrote:
> Why would the DJGPP compiler give this error message "stray '\335' in
> program" for this line "if((x == 20) || (i == 90))" Thanks in advance.

Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de) responded:

> Trust the poster to be from the UK whenever this particular issue
> comes up... ;-)

> For some insane reason, the UK mapping for PC keyboards has *two* keys
> that produce a vertical bar: one has a break in the middle, the other
> doesn't.  Use the other one and you'll be happy.  \335 is character
> code 221 (you get that by pressing Alt-<2 2 1>).  The proper ASCII code for
> | is 124.

I presume you were looking at these characters in the DOS or US-ASCII charset
rather than any of the ISO-8859-x international charsets commonly used in
email and news?  ASCII 221 Ý looks like a solid vertical bar but longer and
thicker than ASCII 124 | .  Whether ASCII 124 character shows with a break in
the middle depends on the OS and the BIOS.  When I had OS/2 on the old
computer, ASCII 124 showed with a break in the middle in straight DOS, but
solid in OS/2, which I believe overrode the BIOS.