Invisible syntax errors (Mac) (fwd)

[Simon B Jones]

Mattias wrote:
> 
> >I am using the Clean 1.1 compiler for Macintosh. Sometimes when I try to
> >compile modules containing code that have been cut and pasted from other
> >documents, I get error messages about syntax errors that apparently
> >don=B4t exist. As if there were invisible characters that mess up the
> >code. Any idea of how to get rid of this?
> >
James responded:
> 
> I have experienced the same issue. I use BBEdit lite. What I did to get rid
> of it, was to retype the lines within the Clean editor. This is a pain put
> it works.
> 

I have had to deal with this on occasions (actually when helping real novices
debug mistyped Gofer scripts!).

You may be able to shortcut James' method if you have an editor/utility that
shows **all** characters (eg Alpha on Mac; I don't know whether BBEdit Lite
can do this). Alternatively, if you step the insertion point carefully along
the faulty line using the arrow keys, you may see positions at which the
insertion point doesn't move for a key stroke: *then* it's just after an
invisible, so delete it!

Regards    Simon

-- 
Dr Simon B Jones              
Dept of Computing Science
             and Mathematics    | Email: sbj@cs.stir.ac.uk
University of Stirling          | URL: http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~sbj
Stirling                        | Tel: (UK) 01786 467434 (Int) +44 1786 467434
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