This seems to cross the line between “new escape sequence” and “bespoke string literal language..."
> On Sep 30, 2019, at 9:30 PM, John Rose <john.r.r...@oracle.com> wrote: > > On Sep 30, 2019, at 4:45 AM, Jim Laskey <james.las...@oracle.com> wrote: >> >> During the discussion on Text Blocks, several of you stated a need for a >> line continuation construct. I have since created a CSR to propose the >> creation of two new escape sequences: \<line terminator> and \s. >> >> https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8227870 >> > > One observation: Some traditional uses of \LT, as in C macros, makefiles, > and shell, > line up the \ characters in a single column as a sort of right-hand fence: > > foo bar \ > baz \ > bat > > This can be done only in settings where the spaces before the \ are treated as > ancillary format, not payload characters. We could make a similar rule for > multi-line > literals, by saying that unescaped spaces *before* the \LT are also deleted > when > the \LT sequence is deleted. > > In other words, the \ at the end of the line is *not* a fence that transforms > the > > So: > > var x = “”” > foo bar \ > baz \ > bat \ > “””; > assert x.equals(“foo bar baz bat”); > > The single space before baz and the three spaces before bat are the left-hand > leading spaces, not the ancillary spaces before the \ characters. > > If some of those trailing spaces are desirable, then \s can be used to make > a fence that saves them from stripping. > > var x = “”” > foo bar\s \ > baz \s \ > bat\s \ > “””; > assert x.equals(“foo bar baz bat ”); > > This rule decouples the two functions of \LT in the current proposal: (1) It > joins > lines, and (2) it creates a fence which makes previously ancillary spaces into > real payload spaces. These are distinct jobs and should not be conflated. > I think it’s a small but real improvement to separate the jobs, and allow \s > to handle (2) and \LT to handle only (1). > > — John > > P.S. A variation of the above suggestion, probably less preferable, would > delete > spaces both *before* and *after* \LT, leading to this: > > var x = “”” > foo bar \ > baz \ > bat \ > “””; > assert x.equals(“foo barbazbat”); > > Again, \s could save spaces from stripping. > >
