Confusing symbol

javascript problem caused by unusual symbol

[birdbrain]

The l symbol above the backward slash on the keyboard is changed to ¦ by Webmaster World Forums. :(
This, as you can imagine, causes problems when posting code in the forums.
Here is an example...

strings[c]=strings[c].replace(/\W¦\d¦\_/g,'+').replace(/\+{2,}/g,'+').replace(/^(\+)¦(\+)$/g,'');

I can see no good reason for this idiosyncrasy. ;)

Hopefully, someone will be able to enlighten me.

birdbrain

[coopster]

The pipe symbol is also a powerful feature in many operating systems, allowing you to pipe processes into other processes. I'm guessing the broken pipe conversion is a security issue that was programmed into the forum software early on and carried through to this day.

[birdbrain]

Hi there coopster,

thank you for your information. ;)

To complete my enlightenment, though, can you say whether or not this
archaic piece of forum software programming is likely to be removed ?

As you may well imagine, it really is inconvenient having to add riders to ones posts every time that the "or operand" is used in ones code. :(

Also there are times when the inclusion of the "or operand" is overlooked. This means that an explanation then has to be given to the original poster explaining why the code supplied does not work as intended. :(

birdbrain

[jatar_k]

no it will not be removed

[birdbrain]

Hi there jatar_k,

Thank you very much for your succinct administrative answer. ;)

birdbrain

[phranque]

whether or not this archaic piece of forum software programming is likely to be removed ?

archaic programming or not, the pipe symbol is just as dangerous as day one.

[birdbrain]

Hi there phranque,

archaic programming or not, the pipe symbol is just as dangerous as day one.

Thank you for your reply. ;)

I am not a professional programmer, but an old age pensioner who does this stuff purely for the mental stimulation that it provides and also in the hope that it may stave off the effects of senile dementia.
Bearing that in mind, perhaps, you could explain to me, and to any other unenlightened members here, what makes this symbol so dangerous.

I visit other forums, and have used the "Or operand" with no problems or complaints from moderators or administrators.
An explanation of its potential dangers would then enable me to alert these forums to them also.

birdbrain

[jatar_k]

it is not so simple a character

though it is often used as OR, which is called a sheffer stroke [en.wikipedia.org]

but there is so much more to the pipe character [en.wikipedia.org]

this is an important part

The name pipe for the character "¦" was a natural consequence of its usage in Unix shells, where it is used to notate the usage of the Unix pipeline [en.wikipedia.org] construct.

[vincevincevince]

javascript:document.body.innerHTML=document.body.innerHTML.replace(/\¦/g,"¦");

The second ¦ should be an unbroken pipe the first remains the ¦ symbol. There used to be a feature here for a custom include (top or bottom of page); but I can't find it now.