Re: /\ Mess.

[Dave Andre <DLA at MIT-EECS>]

I vote for the change.  "/" is just to common a character to be a
quote character, and "\" really has no other use.

In a winning file system, all files would have arbitrary properties,
and for the transition, a new property which tells lisp readers of the
file whether the format is "new" or "old" would be the answer.
Currently file properties such as this are kept with the text, on the
-*- line.  This has the obvious disadvantage that, in order to change
the file's properties, one has to change the text.  However, since it
is the only property facility that exists at the moment, it's probably
the right thing to use.

So I propose that, at some point in time, anything which uses lisp
code check for a "Format: New" in the file's property list, and if
it's not, offer to translate the file before "using" it.  The problem
with this scheme is that not all people use the -*- stuff at the
beginning of a file, and some might want to flush it after it has been
written out by the translator.

As I see it, the only other viable option to determine the file's
format is to use the file's date, as suggested before.  The problem
with this is that people may write code using the old quoting
mechanism after the magic date.  I see the problems with my scheme as
easier to cope with.

			-- Dave