ASCII Delimited Text – Not CSV or TAB delimited text

Re:ASCII Delimited Text – Not CSV or TAB delimited text by joesb on Friday March 28, 2014 @12:18AM (#7485320)

It's no different, if it can be displayed on the screen and it is on the keyboard, then the user will type it into the text file for how it look, not because they want to really use it as record separator. And if user can type it in the content then you have to escape it, which is back to the same problem with using tabs.

But if it's not on the keyboard, then the user won't type it. So it doesn't get used.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ASCII Delimited Text – Not CSV or TAB delimited text by coldtea on Friday March 28, 2014 @08:19AM (#7486685)

It's very different.

Tab, comma, semicolon are actual characters people DO and need to use inside records. So not only they can be typed into records, they absolutely HAVE to be typed for most textual records.

ASCII record separators are not needed inside records at all. If someone adds them "for how it looks", it's his problem.

One (not using a record separator inside a record) is a matter of choice and doing the right thing. The other (not using comma, semicolon or tab) is a non starter.

Obviously there's a difference.

[ Parent | on HN ]