I agree that backslash string wrapping is obscure. I do use it a lot, but I would not be sad to see it go.
The same is true for \a, \b, \f, \v, \EM, \DC1, etc. We do need \&, though. On Tue, Oct 2, 2012 at 10:17 PM, Evan Laforge <qdun...@gmail.com> wrote: > The backslash string wrapping feature is a fairly obscure part of > haskell syntax, and some tools don't handle it properly (e.g. the > built in 'lex' function won't lex such strings properly). It's also > not as useful as e.g. python's triple quotes, because you have to > suffix and prefix every line with a backslash. As long as you are > have to add suffixes and prefixes (i.e. straight cut and paste no > longer works), you might as well write it out with (++). In other > words, as long as you're applying ('\\':) . (++"\\") you might as well > apply ("++ \""++) . (++"\""). And it seems to me that "string > literal" ++ "another string" is an easy thing for a compiler to > optimize, ghc-core says ghc unsurprisingly has no trouble with it. > > So it's probably not helpful for performance. IMO it's not very > useful for it's intended purpose (embedding multiline strings) because > of the \s everywhere. It doesn't seem very widely used, and it adds a > little bit of a hassle to parsing. And 'lex' doesn't support it. > > Any interest in getting rid of it? > > > I would actually be in favor of triple quotes (yeah, I know it can be > done with quasi-quotes, but still...), but that's a different issue. > > Also, it's hardly a big deal, but do we really need \a, \b, \f, and > \v? The one time I used one (it was \v) it was a typo and I would > have preferred the parse error, instead I got weird output that I > didn't notice for a long time. If I really want to, say, ring the > terminal bell or do a vertical tab or perhaps send a telegraph, I > would be using some library that handles terminal type stuff in a > higher level way. Similarly, the \EM, \DC1, etc. codes are probably > not pulling their weight. The '70s were 40 years ago! And there's > that weird \& thing. Surely cursor control library authors have > better ways to construct their magic codes. > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell-prime mailing list > Haskell-prime@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-prime >
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