RE: defn() with multiple arguments

[Schwarz, Konrad]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Blake [mailto:address@hidden 

> I deleted the sentence (first person disclaimers in a manual is rather
> tacky) but did nothing about the lack of implementation.
> 
> But since POSIX requires it, and since it can, indeed, be 
> used to concatenate macros that would otherwise contain 
> unbalanced quotes if expanded in isolation, I think it is 
> worth adding to M4 1.4.11.  Patch to follow soon.

Thank you very much.  That's great news.

On another tack, the otherwise excellent m4 manual is silent on what
happens if you change the quoting characters to open parenthesis, close
parenthesis.  I would expect things to break, since these characters
enclose a macro's arguments; perhaps it would be worthwhile to add a
warning to the manual not to do this, or to prohibit it outright, or
perhaps to clarify the resulting situation.  (Similar, but more
theoretical, questions arise for use of comma, dollar, and number sign
as quoting characters.)

Regards,

Konrad Schwarz