Proposal for truncation type 105: Masking

There was a proposal at the April ZIG meeting to
amend the definition of type 104 truncation.
Discussion continued after the meeting however it
was clear that only a few people were interested,
and we have had offline discussion. As a result
the following is proposed:

1. No change to the type 104 truncation. (In fact
it is suggested that it be depricated; however
deprication not part of the specific proposal
below.)

2. A new truncation type is proposed,
105:"Masking". See specific proposal below. (The
105 definition is kept simple and if it is not
sufficient to meet masking requirements, other
implementors may develop and propose a more
complex type, 107.)

3.  Another new truncation type will be proposed,
106: "ISO 8777".  Its definition will be supplied
later, and is not part of the specific proposal
below.


Specific Proposal (comments requested by June 30).

Type 105: "Masking".  Proposed Definition.

A single asterisk (*) is used to mask  zero or
more characters.
A single question mark (?) is used to mask zero or
one character.
(Thus N consecutive question-marks means mask zero
to N characters.)

Backslash is used to escape ? and * (as well as
itself):
\? is a literal ?
\* is a literal *
\\ is a literal \

Thus \\* would be literal backslash followed by
active *.
\\\* would be literal \*.


Please comment, by June 30.

--Ray