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The incorrect capitalization made me think that, perhaps, there's a scarcely known escape sequence \N that is different from \n. Maybe it matches any character
by kijin 2y ago
The incorrect capitalization made me think that, perhaps, there's a scarcely known escape sequence \N that is different from \n. Maybe it matches any character that isn't a newline? Nope, just small caps in the original article.
- paulddraper 2y agoThere is actually. Many systems use \N in CSVs or similar as NULL, to distinguish from an empty string. I figured this is what the article was about?
- cpach 2y agoIf you do view source, it’s actually \n, but it’s not displayed as such because of this CSS rule: .title { font-variant: small-caps; }
- sedatk 2y agoSo, the HN title is wrong.
- isatty 2y agoThe original title is.
- deathanatos 2y agoIn addition to what others have said about smallcaps being a stylistic rendering, if you copy & paste the original title, you'll get Whence '\n'?
- niederman 2y agoNo, the original title is correct, small caps are just an alternate way of setting lowercase letters.
- neuroelectron 2y agoWhen have you ever seen small caps in use on this website?
- deathanatos 2y agoPython has a \N escape sequence. It inserts a Unicode character by name. For example, '\N{PILE OF POO}' is the Unicode string containing a single USV, the pile of poop emoji. Much more self-documenting than doing it with a hex sequence with \u or \U.
- binary132 2y agoThat is in fact why I clicked this article. Oh well. Still a fun read. :)