Several commands are useful for generating machine-independent code. For example, FWEB works internally with the ASCII character set, so uses these commands heavily to convert from the possibly non-ASCII native character set of the machine on which FWEB is running.
@': Convert character to ASCII
The construction @'c' converts c to its ASCII value. In
C and C++, it is converted to octal; for example, @'A' is output
as 0101. In FORTRAN and RATFOR, it is converted to decimal; the
previous example would be output as 65.
If the native character set of one's machine is ASCII, the conversion
will not be done unless the -A command-line option is used.
See -A_.