ADOBE FRAMEMAKER 10
MIF Reference
7
Character set in strings
MIF string data uses the FrameMaker character set (see the
Quick Reference
for your FrameMaker product). MIF
strings must begin with a left quotation mark (ASCII character code
0x60
) and end with a straight quotation mark
(ASCII character code
0x27
). Within a string, you can include any character in the FrameMaker character set.
However, because a MIF file can contain only standard ASCII characters and because of MIF parsing requirements,
you must represent certain characters with backslash (\) sequences.
Note:
The \xnn character is supported only for legacy MIF files.
All FrameMaker characters with values above the standard ASCII range (greater than
\x7f
) are represented in a
string by using
\x
nn
notation, where
nn
represents the hexadecimal code for the character. The hexadecimal digits
must be followed by a space.
When using special characters in a variable definition, you can also use a hexadecimal notation or Unicode notation.
In the previous example, the hexadecimal notation for the paragraph symbol (¶) is \xa6. Alternatively, you can use
the \u00B6 Unicode notation to represent the same character.
The following example shows a FrameMaker document line and its representation in a MIF string.
You can also use the
Char
statement to include certain predefined special characters in a
ParaLine
statement (see
“Char statement” on page 126
).
Device-independent pathnames
Several MIF statements require pathnames as values. You should supply a device-independent pathname so that files
can easily be transported across different system types. Because of MIF parsing requirements, you must use the
following syntax to supply a pathname:
`<code\>name<code\>name<code\>name
…
'
where
name
is the name of a component in the file’s path and
code
identifies the role of the component in the path.
The following table lists codes and their meanings.
Character
Representation
Tab
\ t
>
\ >
'
\ q
`
\ Q
\
\ \
nonstandard ASCII
\x
nn
In a FrameMaker document
In MIF
Some `symbols': > \Ø¿!
`Some \Qsymbols\q: \> \\
Ø¿
!'
Code
Meaning
r
Root of UNIX file tree (UNIX only)
v
Volume or drive (Windows)
h
Host (Apollo only)
c
Component