Re: printf(1), sh(1), POSIX.2 and octal escape sequences

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>>> "\ddd", where ddd is a one, two, or three-digit octal number, shall
>>> be written as a byte with the numeric value specified by the octal
>>> number."
>> [...]
> I beg to differ: since due to this very unfortunate "variable length"
> feature, your scanner has to read char by char, it can reject the
> third digit since it would yield an out of range byte value.

Would it?  Only if your bytes are smaller than nine bits - or if
they're signed and smaller than ten bits.

Is the size of a `byte' specified anywhere?  If not, then the \777 ->
\77 7 interpretation would parse \777 as one byte with >=10-bit bytes,
two with (6-to-)8-bit bytes (9-bit bytes, it depends on whether bytes
are signed).  That strikes me as a relatively serious potential
problem.

Certainly I have heard of C implementations where `char' is the same
size as short, int, and long (typically word-addressed DSPs).  But I
don't know whether that bears any relation to a `byte' in this sense.

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