Form Feeds in C

[COTTRELL, JAMES]

/*
> What does C do with ^L (formfeed) in a source file?  I don't mean anywhere,
> just where one would logically put it for throwing a page on a printer, say
> to split functions to separate pages.  I cannot find a reference to this
> anywhere in K&R.  On a Vax running Ultrix, the pre-processor passes the ^L
> through unchanged, and neither cc nor lint complain.  Is ^L universally
> accepted by C compilers?

Mostly. Some old ones would barf on it. That's why you would 
occaisionally see them imbedded in comments, which CPP would strip out
(and if it didn't, the rest of the compiler would ignore anyway).

All this reminds me of a story you probably don't want to hear.
We once wrote an include processor for Fortrash which would replace
INCLUDE "file" in column one (clearly illegal fortrash) with the
appropriate file. I added a PAGE directive which added the two
character record (no byte streams) <CAPITAL C><FORM FEED> into the
output stream in column one. The compiler just ignored it, but when
sent to the printer, flipped the page. Now wasn't that boring?
Oh, yeah, that was a punched card shop. Really. In 1977 no less.

	jim		cottrell at nbs
*/
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