code: private int scanToken()
      {
          int begin = ivPos;
  
          if (ivPos < ivString.length())
          {
              if (ivString.charAt(ivPos) == '-')
              {
                  // dayOfWeek allows tokens to begin with "-" (e.g., "-7").  We
                  // cannot add "-" to isTokenChar or else "1-2" would be parsed as a
                  // single atom.
                  ivPos++;
              }
  
              while (ivPos < ivString.length() && isTokenChar(ivString.charAt(ivPos)))
              {
                  ivPos++;
              }
          }
  
          return begin;
      }
docs: Skip the minimum number of characters necessary to form a single unit of
  information within a value. Whitespace before the value is not skipped.
  
  @return the position in the parse string before skipping; if no atom
  was found, this value will be the same as <tt>ivPos</tt>