Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!DMZRZU71.BITNET!mat6013
From: mat6013@DMZRZU71.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re:  comma input
Message-ID: <8707090641.aa04500@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 13-Jul-87 05:54:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: SMOKE.8707090641.aa04500
Posted: Mon Jul 13 05:54:52 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jul-87 01:44:10 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 24

The easiest way to INPUT commas (or colons) as a normal character is to type a
double  quote  before  the  line  you wish to enter.  The double quote will be
stripped  off  the  input  by  the  interpreter  and  not stored in the string
variable.   A  closing  quote  is  not needed, but can be supplied and will be
treeted like the one at the beginning.  Example:

   to enter:  Here,are:a,lot:of,commas:and,colons:around.
   you type: "Here,are:a,lot:of,commas:and,colons:around.

But  when  fixing the problem this way you can't include a double quote in the
same  string because it will be interpreted as the closing one.  (An input not
starting  with  a double quote can include an arbitrary number of them without
any special action taken by Applesoft.)

The  reason  for  this behaviour is that the same internal routine is used for
parsing  both the user response to an INPUT (and a GET) and the arguments of a
DATA.

A  more  comfortable  solution  would  be to use an "input everything" routine
published in various Apple magazines or an appropriate command offered by some
commercial BASIC extensions.

                                        Matthias Kapffer