Re: Wording: NUL(L) byte

Chris Wright wrote: > On 24 April 2015 at 10:08, Peter Cowburn <petercowburn@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On 24 April 2015 at 03:34, Theodore M Rolle, Jr. <stercor@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> How about: >>> <!ENTITY NUL 'NUL'> OR >>> <!ENTITY null 'null byte'> OR >>> <!ENTITY null 'null character'> OR >>> <!ENTITY null 'null thingy'> <-----<<< Not really. The entity null is already used to designate the PHP value NULL. >>> On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 8:42 PM, Christoph Becker <cmbecker69@gmx.de> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> I think it would be good if there will be a general guideline on how to >>>> spell this byte. ASCII uses the abbreviation "NUL"; in C one speaks of >>>> "null character" and "null-terminated strings", which are also >>>> known as >>>> ASCIIZ (note the trailing "Z" for "zero"). Wikipedia seems to >>>> prefer >>>> the abbreviation "NUL". >>> >> I believe that the most correct term is "null character", with the term >> "null byte" (more?) common and both abbreviated to "NUL" (so, "NUL >> character" is bad). I think that we should use the term "null character" >> where possible, "null byte" where the word "character" might be >> confusing >> or "byte" makes more sense, and only use "NUL" as a clarification where >> the >> term is used alongside or in comparison to our "null" type or "NULL" >> value. We should not be using "<type>null</type> character" or >> "&null; >> character" when referring to the null character. Okay. As indeed it might be necessary to use different wordings depending on the context, introducing an entity doesn't make sense. Anyhow, it might be a good idea to put that into the "PHP Manual Terms" table on <http://doc.php.net/tutorial/style.php>. > +1, it is important that any standardisation adequately considers that PHP > has two distinct concepts of NULL. There must be consistency that makes it > clear when you are talking about the type and when you are talking about a > byte with a value of zero - "&null; byte" on the isset() page is definitely > wrong. I'll submit a respective patch if noone beats me to it. -- Christoph M. Becker