diff --git a/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/AsmGen.kt b/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/AsmGen.kt
index 355f313da..38760660f 100644
--- a/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/AsmGen.kt
+++ b/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/AsmGen.kt
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ class AsmGen(internal val program: Program,
     }
 
     internal fun out(str: String, splitlines: Boolean = true) {
-        val fragment = (if(" | " in str) str.replace("|", "\n") else str).trim('\n')
+        val fragment = (if(splitlines && " | " in str) str.replace("|", "\n") else str).trim('\n')
         if (splitlines) {
             for (line in fragment.splitToSequence('\n')) {
                 val trimmed = if (line.startsWith(' ')) "\t" + line.trim() else line
diff --git a/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/ProgramAndVarsGen.kt b/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/ProgramAndVarsGen.kt
index 5e015b6a7..ce0729530 100644
--- a/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/ProgramAndVarsGen.kt
+++ b/codeGenCpu6502/src/prog8/codegen/cpu6502/ProgramAndVarsGen.kt
@@ -589,7 +589,7 @@ internal class ProgramAndVarsGen(
     }
 
     private fun outputStringvar(varname: String, encoding: Encoding, value: String) {
-        asmgen.out("$varname\t; $encoding:\"${value.escape().replace("\u0000", "<NULL>")}\"")
+        asmgen.out("$varname\t; $encoding:\"${value.escape().replace("\u0000", "<NULL>")}\"", false)
         val bytes = compTarget.encodeString(value, encoding).plus(0.toUByte())
         val outputBytes = bytes.map { "$" + it.toString(16).padStart(2, '0') }
         for (chunk in outputBytes.chunked(16))
diff --git a/compiler/test/codegeneration/TestVariables.kt b/compiler/test/codegeneration/TestVariables.kt
index d85412c68..8863bcb46 100644
--- a/compiler/test/codegeneration/TestVariables.kt
+++ b/compiler/test/codegeneration/TestVariables.kt
@@ -50,4 +50,18 @@ class TestVariables: FunSpec({
         """
         compileText(C64Target(), false, text, writeAssembly = true) shouldNotBe null
     }
+
+
+    test("pipe character in string literal") {
+        val text = """
+            main {
+                sub start() {
+                    str name = "first|second"
+                    str name2 = "first | second"
+                }
+            }
+        """
+        compileText(C64Target(), false, text, writeAssembly = true) shouldNotBe null
+    }
+
 })
diff --git a/docs/source/todo.rst b/docs/source/todo.rst
index a7c77c161..049a13bbe 100644
--- a/docs/source/todo.rst
+++ b/docs/source/todo.rst
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ TODO
 
 For next release
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-- fix natt's bugs
+- fix natt's bug: ubyte - 2 + 10 somehow gets promoted to byte?
 - optimize pointervar indexing codegen: make them work as subroutine paramers
 - optimize pointervar indexing codegen: writing (all sorts of things)
 - pipe operator: (targets other than 'Virtual'): allow non-unary function calls in the pipe that specify the other argument(s) in the calls.  Already working for VM target.