[OT] whitespace (was Re: stupid perl question)

[Sion Arrowsmith]

John Machin  <sjmachin at lexicon.net> wrote:
> Whitespace is a silly term, anyway (IMHO); is there such a 
>thing as a space that is not white?

Yes, if you go back to the term's origins in printshops. A solid
block of ink is space, not print, but it's not whitespace. We've
kept the word alive, even if the meaning's drifted (see also "tab").
And if we didn't say "whitespace", how would we distinguish between
"space characters" meaning "     " and "whitespace characters"
meaning " \t\r\n\v"? (OK, has anyone met a "\v" in the wild?)

-- 
\S -- siona at chiark.greenend.org.uk -- http://www.chaos.org.uk/~sion/
  ___  |  "Frankly I have no feelings towards penguins one way or the other"
  \X/  |    -- Arthur C. Clarke
   her nu becomeþ se bera eadward ofdun hlæddre heafdes bæce bump bump bump