diff --git a/document/core/text/lexical.rst b/document/core/text/lexical.rst
index 1dd34c8635..4584b0c424 100644
--- a/document/core/text/lexical.rst
+++ b/document/core/text/lexical.rst
@@ -85,7 +85,9 @@ The allowed formatting characters correspond to a subset of the |ASCII|_ *format
    \production{white space} & \Tspace &::=&
      (\text{~~} ~|~ \Tformat ~|~ \Tcomment)^\ast \\
    \production{format} & \Tformat &::=&
-     \unicode{09} ~|~ \unicode{0A} ~|~ \unicode{0D} \\
+     \Tnewline ~|~ \unicode{09} \\
+   \production{newline} & \Tnewline &::=&
+     \unicode{0A} ~|~ \unicode{0D} ~|~ \unicode{0D}~\unicode{0A} \\
    \end{array}
 
 The only relevance of white space is to separate :ref:`tokens <text-token>`. It is otherwise ignored.
@@ -107,13 +109,13 @@ Block comments can be nested.
    \production{comment} & \Tcomment &::=&
      \Tlinecomment ~|~ \Tblockcomment \\
    \production{line comment} & \Tlinecomment &::=&
-     \Tcommentd~~\Tlinechar^\ast~~(\unicode{0A} ~|~ \T{eof}) \\
+     \Tcommentd~~\Tlinechar^\ast~~(\Tnewline ~|~ \T{eof}) \\
    \production{line character} & \Tlinechar &::=&
-     c{:}\Tchar & (\iff c \neq \unicode{0A}) \\
+     c{:}\Tchar & (\iff c \neq \unicode{0A} \land c \neq \unicode{0D}) \\
    \production{block comment} & \Tblockcomment &::=&
      \Tcommentl~~\Tblockchar^\ast~~\Tcommentr \\
    \production{block character} & \Tblockchar &::=&
-     c{:}\Tchar & (\iff c \neq \text{;} \wedge c \neq \text{(}) \\ &&|&
+     c{:}\Tchar & (\iff c \neq \text{;} \land c \neq \text{(}) \\ &&|&
      \text{;} & (\iff~\mbox{the next character is not}~\text{)}) \\ &&|&
      \text{(} & (\iff~\mbox{the next character is not}~\text{;}) \\ &&|&
      \Tblockcomment \\
diff --git a/document/core/util/macros.def b/document/core/util/macros.def
index df4af62f83..5e7a4889b2 100644
--- a/document/core/util/macros.def
+++ b/document/core/util/macros.def
@@ -700,6 +700,7 @@
 .. |Tchar| mathdef:: \xref{text/lexical}{text-char}{\T{char}}
 .. |Tspace| mathdef:: \xref{text/lexical}{text-space}{\T{space}}
 .. |Tformat| mathdef:: \xref{text/lexical}{text-format}{\T{format}}
+.. |Tnewline| mathdef:: \xref{text/lexical}{text-newline}{\T{newline}}
 
 .. |Ttoken| mathdef:: \xref{text/lexical}{text-token}{\T{token}}
 .. |Tkeyword| mathdef:: \xref{text/lexical}{text-keyword}{\T{keyword}}
diff --git a/interpreter/Makefile b/interpreter/Makefile
index 5939f838ec..dfd9064bbf 100644
--- a/interpreter/Makefile
+++ b/interpreter/Makefile
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ zip:		$(ZIP)
 
 # Building
 
-.PHONY:                $(NAME) $(JSLIB)
+.PHONY:		$(NAME) $(JSLIB)
 
 $(NAME):
 	rm -f $@
diff --git a/interpreter/text/lexer.mll b/interpreter/text/lexer.mll
index d9a12b5d21..34099e849f 100644
--- a/interpreter/text/lexer.mll
+++ b/interpreter/text/lexer.mll
@@ -27,9 +27,9 @@ let string s =
   while !i < String.length s - 1 do
     let c = if s.[!i] <> '\\' then s.[!i] else
       match (incr i; s.[!i]) with
-      | 'n' -> '\n'
-      | 'r' -> '\r'
-      | 't' -> '\t'
+      | 'n' -> '\x0a'
+      | 'r' -> '\x0d'
+      | 't' -> '\x09'
       | '\\' -> '\\'
       | '\'' -> '\''
       | '\"' -> '\"'
@@ -61,10 +61,12 @@ let letter = ['a'-'z''A'-'Z']
 let symbol =
   ['+''-''*''/''\\''^''~''=''<''>''!''?''@''#''$''%''&''|'':''`''.''\'']
 
-let space = [' ''\t''\n''\r']
+let ascii_newline = ['\x0a''\x0d']
+let newline = ascii_newline | "\x0a\x0d"
+let space = [' ''\x09''\x0a''\x0d']
 let control = ['\x00'-'\x1f'] # space
 let ascii = ['\x00'-'\x7f']
-let ascii_no_nl = ascii # '\x0a'
+let ascii_no_nl = ascii # ascii_newline
 let utf8cont = ['\x80'-'\xbf']
 let utf8enc =
     ['\xc2'-'\xdf'] utf8cont
@@ -127,8 +129,8 @@ rule token = parse
   | float as s { FLOAT s }
 
   | string as s { STRING (string s) }
-  | '"'character*('\n'|eof) { error lexbuf "unclosed string literal" }
-  | '"'character*['\x00'-'\x09''\x0b'-'\x1f''\x7f']
+  | '"'character*(newline|eof) { error lexbuf "unclosed string literal" }
+  | '"'character*(control#ascii_newline)
     { error lexbuf "illegal control character in string literal" }
   | '"'character*'\\'_
     { error_nest (Lexing.lexeme_end_p lexbuf) lexbuf "illegal escape" }
@@ -698,11 +700,11 @@ rule token = parse
   | id as s { VAR s }
 
   | ";;"utf8_no_nl*eof { EOF }
-  | ";;"utf8_no_nl*'\n' { Lexing.new_line lexbuf; token lexbuf }
+  | ";;"utf8_no_nl*newline { Lexing.new_line lexbuf; token lexbuf }
   | ";;"utf8_no_nl* { token lexbuf (* causes error on following position *) }
   | "(;" { comment (Lexing.lexeme_start_p lexbuf) lexbuf; token lexbuf }
-  | space#'\n' { token lexbuf }
-  | '\n' { Lexing.new_line lexbuf; token lexbuf }
+  | space#ascii_newline { token lexbuf }
+  | newline { Lexing.new_line lexbuf; token lexbuf }
   | eof { EOF }
 
   | reserved { unknown lexbuf }
@@ -713,7 +715,7 @@ rule token = parse
 and comment start = parse
   | ";)" { () }
   | "(;" { comment (Lexing.lexeme_start_p lexbuf) lexbuf; comment start lexbuf }
-  | '\n' { Lexing.new_line lexbuf; comment start lexbuf }
+  | newline { Lexing.new_line lexbuf; comment start lexbuf }
   | utf8_no_nl { comment start lexbuf }
   | eof { error_nest start lexbuf "unclosed comment" }
   | _ { error lexbuf "malformed UTF-8 encoding" }
diff --git a/test/core/comments.wast b/test/core/comments.wast
index c291370fa7..5ef64a6c1e 100644
Binary files a/test/core/comments.wast and b/test/core/comments.wast differ