flex: Can I fake multi-byte character support?

 
 Can I fake multi-byte character support?
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      To: Heeman_Lee@hp.com
      Subject: Re: flex - multi-byte support?
      In-reply-to: Your message of Thu, 03 Oct 1996 17:24:04 PDT.
      Date: Fri, 04 Oct 1996 11:42:18 PDT
      From: Vern Paxson <vern>
      
      >      I assume as long as my *.l file defines the
      >      range of expected character code values (in octal format), flex will
      >      scan the file and read multi-byte characters correctly. But I have no
      >      confidence in this assumption.
      
      Your lack of confidence is justified - this won't work.
      
      Flex has in it a widespread assumption that the input is processed
      one byte at a time.  Fixing this is on the to-do list, but is involved,
      so it won't happen any time soon.  In the interim, the best I can suggest
      (unless you want to try fixing it yourself) is to write your rules in
      terms of pairs of bytes, using definitions in the first section:
      
      	X	\xfe\xc2
      	...
      	%%
      	foo{X}bar	found_foo_fe_c2_bar();
      
      etc.  Definitely a pain - sorry about that.
      
      By the way, the email address you used for me is ancient, indicating you
      have a very old version of flex.  You can get the most recent, 2.5.4, from
      ftp.ee.lbl.gov.
      
      		Vern