In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Duncan Booth wrote:
> Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> The Python docs recommend the use of triple-quoted string literals for
>> docstrings, e.g.
>>
>> def Meet(Alice, Bob) :
>> """arranges a meeting between Alice and Bob.
>> Returns a reference to the meeting booking object."""
>> ...
>> #end Meet
>> However, these tend to get messed up by indentation whitespace, which
>> gets spuriously included as part of the string.
>
> Not spuriously included: included by design, but sometimes annoying.
The problem is that the treatment of indentation whitespace in triple-quoted
strings is at odds with its use for syntax purposes elsewhere in the
language.
Instead of preserving all included whitespace, a better rule for
triple-quoted strings might be to strip whitespace up to the current
indentation level from each continuation line. That is, each line _must_
begin with at least that amount of whitespace, otherwise it's an error; any
extra whitespace is preserved. E.g.
a = """two lines
of text"""
being equivalent to
a = "two lines\n of text"
Or, a simpler rule might be to strip _all_ whitespace at the start of each
continuation line, regardless of indentation level. So the triple-quoted
example above becomes equivalent to
a = "two lines\nof text"
If you _want_ to include some whitespace at the start of a continuation
line, simply precede it by something that isn't literal whitespace:
a = """two lines
\x20 of text"""
becomes equivalent to
a = "two lines\n of text"
(It might be nice if "\ " was recognized as equivalent to "\x20" for this
purpose.)
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