Punctuators

Table of Contents

• General Punctuators
  • Arithmetic
    • Unambigous C and C++ punctuators for artithmetic
    • Ambigous C and C++ punctuators for artithmetic
  • EĿlipsis specific punctuators for all languages
    • Punctuators that are mandatory for all languages
    • Punctuators for directives
• Punctuators for C
  • C operators with side effects
  • C punctuators for code structure
  • eĿlipsis extension operators for C
  • instrument opening and closing braces in C
• Punctuators for markdown
  • Markdown punctuators at the start of lines

Punctuators are special sequences of characters that have a specific sematics in the target language. They are encoded as such and terminate immediately. Eŀlipsis proposes single Unicode replacements for those where a code point exists that has a description that matches the semantics.

Remarks

As an extension, eĿlipsis also accepts these code points on input.

General Punctuators

These are used by eĿlipsis in several contexts, independently of the language that is processed

Arithmetic

These punctuators are use in eĿlipsis expressions in #if conditionals and __EVALUATE__ contexts.

Unambigous C and C++ punctuators for artithmetic

Note

Some of these appear here as backslash encoded strings such that they do not disturb the markdown output.

sequence	replacement	note
"!"	"¬"
"!="	"≠"
"&&"	"∧"
"-"	"−"
"/"	"∕"
"<<"	"◀"
"<="	"≤"
"=="	"≡"
">="	"≥"
">>"	"▶"
"❘"	"∪"	vertical bar
"❘❘"	"∨"	two vertical bars
"~"	"∁"

Ambigous C and C++ punctuators for artithmetic

We cannot easily use Unicode replacements for these,so they are not automatically transformed. The note indicates the meaning of the replacement.

sequence	replacement	note
"&"	"∩"	bit-wise (not address)
"*"	"×"	multiply (not reference)

EĿlipsis specific punctuators for all languages

Punctuators that are mandatory for all languages

sequence	replacement	note
"..."	"…"	for variable argument lists
"⸤"		keep, start an unfiltered token sequence
"⸥"		peek, end an unfiltered token sequence
"¤"		the full name of the current unit
"¤¤"		the full name of the parent unit
"¤¤¤"		the full name of the grand-parent unit
"¤¤¤¤"		the full name of the great-grand-parent unit
"¤¤¤¤¤"		the full name of the great-great-grand-parent unit
".∷"		prefix with the full name of the current unit, obsolete
".::"	".∷"	prefix with the full name of the current unit, obsolete
"..∷"		prefix with the full name of the parent unit, obsolete
"..::"	"..∷"	prefix with the full name of the parent unit, obsolete

Punctuators for directives

Directives form their own sublanguage with a specific set of punctuators that are used as operators.

See also

Punctuators that are mandatory for all languages

sequence	replacement	note
"⌗"		the stringify operator
"⨝"		the token join operator
"#"	"⌗"	the stringify operator
"#"	"⌗"	the stringify operator
"##"	"⨝"	the token join operator
"##"	"⨝"	the token join operator

Punctuators for C

See also

Arithmetic

Punctuators that are mandatory for all languages

C operators with side effects

C has a whole set of operators that combine arithmetic with side effects on objects that make no sense for the preprocessor.

sequence	replacement	note
"%="
"&="	"∩="
"*="	"×="
"++"
"+="
"--"
"-="	"−="
"/="	"∕="
"<<="	"◀="
">>="	"▶="
"^="
"❘="	"∪="

C punctuators for code structure

Warning

the FULL STOP character should never be listed here. It is always a punctuator unless it is followed by a digit, whence it starts a numeral.

sequence	replacement	note
"%>"	"}"
"->"	"→"
"∷"		extension for composed names
":>"	"]"
"<%"	"{"
"<:"	"["

eĿlipsis extension operators for C

These are accepted as tokens in C and produce the indicated effect on the output stream. This can e.g. be used to "escape" directives that should be conserved for the output or to preprocess comments such that they can be used for documentation.

sequence	replacement	output
"%%"		a # token
"%%%%"		a ## token
"<❘"	"⸤"	keep, start an unfiltered token sequence
"❘>"	"⸥"	peek, end an unfiltered token sequence
"/*^*/"		a newline
"/*>*/"		a tab character
"/*^"		start a doxygen comment
"^*/"		end a doxygen comment
"/*!"		start a comment
"!*/"		end a comment

instrument opening and closing braces in C

These are accepted as tokens in C and can be used to add preprocessor callbacks to these constructs. This is e.g used by hierarchically named identifiers and by the defer extension.

sequence	replacement	meaning
"{"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"}"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"["		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"]"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"[["		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"]]"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"⟦"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"⟧"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"="		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
";"		instrumentation, implemented by a macro
"::"		used for attributes and composed names

Punctuators for markdown

See also

Markdown special that starts at the beginning of lines

Verbatim code inclusion

Markdown punctuators at the start of lines

sequence	replacement	note
"---"		a horizontal line
"-"		an item in a list
"+"		an item in a list
"*"		an item in a list
">"		citation, first level
">>"		citation, second level
">>>"		citation, third level
">>>>"		citation, fourth level
">>>>>"		citation, fifth level
">>>>>>"		citation, sixth level
"#"		heading, first level
"##"		heading, second level
"###"		heading, third level
"####"		heading, fourth level
"#####"		heading, fifth level
"######"		heading, sixth level