cplusplus / cplusplus/draft

[lex.pptoken] p2 Make the effect of the whitespace in preprocessing tokens clearly

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Description

[lex.pptoken] p2 says:

Preprocessing tokens can be separated by whitespace; this consists of comments ([lex.comment]), or whitespace characters (U+0020 space, U+0009 character tabulation, new-line, U+000b line tabulation, and U+000c form feed), or both.
As described in [cpp], in certain circumstances during translation phase 4, whitespace (or the absence thereof) serves as more than preprocessing token separation. Whitespace can appear within a preprocessing token only as part of a header name or between the quotation characters in a character literal or string literal.

"can" in this sentence serves as a weak tone. The intent is, whitespace definitely separates preprocessing tokens except for some special cases. The improvement is:

Except that the whitespace that appears within a preprocessing token only as part of a header name or between the quotation characters in a character literal or string literal, a whitespace separates preprocessing tokens.

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Research direction

Start with the [lex.pptoken] wording in the C++ draft and compare its references to [cpp]. Revise the sentence so the exception for whitespace within header names and between quotation characters is explicit, then check the rendered draft for clear grammar and formatting.

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Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
Under an hour
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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