Miscellaneous Characters

∂  Change the meaning of the next character  [Option-D]

The ∂ character changes the meaning of the character that immediately follows it. When combined with certain characters, ∂ has specific meanings, as shown below:

If you use ∂ before a return to continue a command to the next line, you need to select both lines of the command and then press Enter to execute the command.

You can also use the ∂ character to cancel the effect of a special character. For example, in each of the expressions

∂?
∂'
∂≈

the MPW Shell interprets the special character as a literal character. To express ∂ as a literal character, use ∂∂ or '∂' in your command. For example, the command

Echo ∂∂

displays ∂ in the active window.

#  Comment

The # character marks a comment in a command. The MPW Shell ignores all of the text between the # character and the end of the line. For example, in the lines

beep  #this command beeps
# beep  but this one doesn't

the first command beeps, but the second doesn't. The entire second command has been made a comment and therefore does not execute.

Comments always end at the next return character, even if the return is preceded by a ∂ character.

:  Separate parts of a pathname

The : character is used to separate the parts of a pathname, such as the volume name, directory names, and the filename. For example, in the pathname

Graphics:MPW:Examples:CExamples:SillyBalls.c

the volume name is Graphics, the intermediary directory names are MPW, Examples, and CExamples, and the filename is SillyBalls.c.

…  Start Commando  [Option-;]

The … character after a command opens a Commando dialog box for that command. Be sure to add the … character to your command by typing Option-semicolon, not by typing three periods.