ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:

\n - backslash /gives/ significance to n
\" - backslash /removes/ the significance of the double quote
That inconsistency does seem odd.

This "inconsistency" here only stems from how you've worded
it above. You could phrase it differently, and then the
"inconsistency" would vanish.

Take for instance:

The standard meaning of "n" is the letter,
the standard meaning of the quotation mark is delimitation.

The backslash consistently imparts a special meaning deviating
from that standard meaning in each case.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

James Harris <james.harris.1@gmail.com> wrote or quoted:

Alternatively, if magic symbols were prefixed with ~ then the above two >strings would appear as
"part~[xy~]"
"a[b]"
Is that really worse?

I reckon it's all about the stats. If a symbol shows up more often in
"regular text" than when used as a magic symbol, you're more inclined
to type more when it's used as a magic symbol, and vice versa.

\n - backslash /gives/ significance to n
\" - backslash /removes/ the significance of the double quote
That inconsistency does seem odd.

This "inconsistency" here only stems from how you've worded
it above. You could phrase it differently, and then the
"inconsistency" would vanish.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)