Offset function

[Jeanne A. E. DeVoto]

At 6:26 AM -0700 9/14/2002, Robert Presender wrote:
>offset("bark","embarking")
>offset(bark,embarking)
>
>Are the quotes necessary?  If necessary, under what conditions?

The overall rule of thumb is that it is always best practice to quote
literal strings. If a string is a single word, is not a reserved Transcript
word, and is not defined as a variable or constant anywhere, you can often
(not in all contexts) get away with not quoting it. The example you give is
one such context, basically because it's easy to parse the offset function
unambiguously.

But it's always a better idea to use quotes, both stylistically (because it
makes it clear that this is a literal string) and practically (because if
you develop a sloppy habit in this area, it's easy to forget to quote when
it does matter - and sometimes bugs introduced in this way aren't
especially easy to find).

--
Jeanne A. E. DeVoto ~ jeanne at runrev.com
Runtime Revolution Limited - The Solution for Software Development
http://www.runrev.com/