Inline Comment

[armsys]

Referring to the following code:

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Let>RP_WINDOWMODE=2  /* Test 1 */
MDL>RP_WINDOWMODE    /* Test 2 */
MDL>RP_WINDOWMODE
MDL>{"2015.11.11 "}  /* Test 3 */
MDL>{"2015.11.11 "}

Why are the MDL results so different?

[Marcus Tettmar]

You have spaces. Read this:
https://www.mjtnet.com/manual/index.htm ... spaces.htm

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Let>IGNORESPACES=1
Let>RP_WINDOWMODE=2  /* Test 1 */
MDL>RP_WINDOWMODE    /* Test 2 */
MDL>RP_WINDOWMODE
MDL>{"2015.11.11 "}  /* Test 3 */
MDL>{"2015.11.11 "}

[armsys]

You have spaces.

Thank you for pointing out the exact cause of different results.
I have done my own extensive tests and confirm your prognosis.

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Let>RP_WINDOWMODE=2  /* Test 1 */
MDL>RP_WINDOWMODE    /* Test 2 */

Referring to the code above, in the absence of IGNORESPACES=1, MS interprets line 2 as displaying a variable named

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"RP_WINDOWMODE    "

(including all spaces before slash), which, of course, was never initiated. Hence, MS display

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"RP_WINDOWMODE    "

itself on the screen.
That's rather an unexpected behavior for an inline comment.
Indeed, IGNORESPACES=1 can apply to the statement with an inline comment. Namely, it eliminates all spaces trailing after the variable name.

[Marcus Tettmar]

Armsys - you've been using Macro Scheduler for what, 10 years or more? So why is this unexpected?

What if you WANT spaces at the end of the line? Let's say we trimmed the line and then you wanted to output a string of spaces? Would you complain that this was unexpected behaviour?

Macro Scheduler has always, by default, made things simple for new users by not forcing you to quote strings or variables. As a result we must leave spaces intact because the user may intend them.

But, *IF*, you do NOT want those spaces then we need to do things differently. First we set IGNORESPACES on so that the spaces are ignored and THEN if you DO want spaces at the end of a string you'll have to QUOTE the string.

You can have it either way. The default way or the second way. It can't be both. We can't guess what the user wants and we also want backward compatibility. If we change the behaviour now many thousands of scripts will fail to work, because believe it or not there are often cases where you WANT spaces at the end of a string.

You've been a user for many years. I'm very surprised that you find this unexpected. There are very valid reasons why it works the way it works. And we've provided options (IGNORESPACES and {"..."}) to make it work more like regular programming languages if that is what you want.