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Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #20233

Re: multi-line Strings

From Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject Re: multi-line Strings
Date 2012-12-10 18:04 -0500
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <ka5pq4$5ao$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References (4 earlier) <ka59ij$m8t$1@dont-email.me> <ka5afr$trm$1@dont-email.me> <50c6413a$0$293$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <ka5jq4$tj7$1@dont-email.me> <50c6598d$0$290$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>

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On 12/10/2012 4:52 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/10/2012 4:22 PM, Eric Sosman wrote:
>> On 12/10/2012 3:08 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> [...]
>>> PS: And for those that do not know C#, then C# has "" strings
>>>      with \ as escape like Java, but also has @"" string where
>>>      \ is not an escape and where line change are allowed.
>>
>>      As one of "those," and curious: Can a @"" string have an
>> embedded " character?
>
> Yes.
>
> An " inside @"" is encoded as "".

     Aha!  Another FORTRAN legacy!  As of FORTRAN IV you could
write 'I''M HERE' instead of 8HI'M HERE, which most people
considered a great advance -- in the late 1960's.

     My point, of course, is that there's still an escape mechanism
at work.  It's a different mechanism, yes, but it still has the
What You See Ain't What You Get problem this thread has been
complaining about.  And here's a funny thing about inventing an
escape mechanism: Even if the special character sequences were
surpassingly uninteresting and spectacularly rare before being
adopted as escapes, their very adoption makes them suddenly
interesting and much more common.  You'll find yourself wanting
to write a regex that looks for "" inside a @"..." string, and
you'll get something like

	@"@""([^""]*""""")*[^""]*"""

... leaving you pretty much where you started, just with a new
suit of clothes on the Emperor.  Also, we still need to produce

	"\u0281 is the IPA voiced uvular fricative"

... on input systems that cannot generate the IPA voiced uvular
fricative all by themselves.

     Source has syntax -- at this level we usually speak of "lexing,"
but a lexer is really just a parser optimized to recognize a simple
syntax.  A big job of the lexer is to distinguish metacharacters
from payload characters, and if every character could potentially
appear as payload there has to be some kind of convention to
discriminate the different usages.  Those conventions mean that
WYSAWYG will inevitably occur, to a greater extent or a lesser.

     It's unfortunate that both Java and regex use \ so heavily,
because it leads to a lot of escaping-of-escapes and harms
readability.  But why should it be a given that Java's literals
should be different to avoid conflict with regex syntax?  Why
not change the regex syntax instead, and use, say, ~ for the
role now taken by \?  It might improve regexes to the point
where they're merely unreadable, instead of intolerable.  ;-)

-- 
Eric Sosman
esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid

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Thread

multi-line Strings bob smith <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-12-10 08:22 -0800
  Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-10 11:43 -0500
    Re: multi-line Strings Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-12-10 09:36 -0800
    Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-10 09:42 -0800
      Re: multi-line Strings Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-12-10 09:51 -0800
        Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-10 10:27 -0800
          Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-10 13:43 -0500
            Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-10 15:08 -0500
              Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-10 13:05 -0800
              Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-10 16:22 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-10 13:36 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-10 16:52 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-10 18:04 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-11 00:17 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-10 17:35 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-11 01:56 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-10 18:00 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-10 21:16 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-11 22:21 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-10 22:12 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-11 05:01 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-11 09:46 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-11 22:26 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-11 16:25 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-10 21:10 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-11 22:31 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:30 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-15 03:35 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-15 11:54 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-15 08:53 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Jim Janney <jjanney@shell.xmission.com> - 2012-12-16 12:19 -0700
                Re: multi-line Strings "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-18 13:24 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-16 17:21 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-18 14:03 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-18 09:05 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-17 20:13 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-18 13:38 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-19 19:48 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 21:07 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-19 08:26 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 16:36 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-21 12:51 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-21 14:05 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-12-15 18:22 +0100
                Re: multi-line Strings Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-12-16 00:34 +0100
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-16 02:56 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2012-12-16 14:07 +0100
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-16 13:44 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings "Peter J. Holzer" <hjp-usenet2@hjp.at> - 2012-12-16 17:43 +0100
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:37 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-10 22:03 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2012-12-11 10:43 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2012-12-11 22:44 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-10 21:09 -0500
      Re: multi-line Strings Sebastian <sebastian@undisclosed.invalid> - 2012-12-12 10:40 +0100
        Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-12 20:28 -0500
    Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-10 13:42 -0600
  Re: multi-line Strings "William Bonawentura" <nie@ma.mnie.pl> - 2012-12-11 07:58 +0100
    Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-11 10:08 -0500
      Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-11 09:41 -0600
      Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-11 15:02 -0600
        Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:27 -0500
        Re: multi-line Strings Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2012-12-14 23:23 -0600
          Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-15 02:56 -0600
    Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-11 16:31 -0500
      Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-11 17:07 -0600
        Re: multi-line Strings Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-12-11 15:31 -0800
          Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-11 19:41 -0600
      Re: multi-line Strings "William Bonawentura" <nie@ma.mnie.pl> - 2012-12-13 07:43 +0100
        Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-12 23:09 -0800
        Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-13 06:34 -0400
          Re: multi-line Strings "William Bonawentura" <nie@ma.mnie.pl> - 2012-12-14 07:35 +0100
            Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-14 02:44 -0600
              Re: multi-line Strings "William Bonawentura" <nie@ma.mnie.pl> - 2012-12-14 11:48 +0100
                Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-14 05:10 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-14 15:18 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:16 -0500
            Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-14 05:55 -0400
              Re: multi-line Strings "William Bonawentura" <nie@ma.mnie.pl> - 2012-12-14 11:50 +0100
                Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-14 05:12 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-12-14 11:24 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-14 11:47 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-14 12:26 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-14 12:53 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:36 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-15 12:06 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:23 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-15 08:16 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:24 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-15 13:36 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-16 17:36 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-14 12:30 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:43 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-14 17:36 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:46 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-16 04:29 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-17 20:45 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-12-17 17:11 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-17 20:25 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-12-17 18:13 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-18 06:34 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-12-18 10:54 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-18 18:57 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2012-12-18 20:02 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-18 17:13 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:35 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-18 15:12 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-19 10:00 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:31 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:29 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-19 20:44 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 21:50 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-19 23:15 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-20 06:00 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-20 08:56 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-19 19:33 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-17 21:43 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-17 22:09 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 20:59 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-18 13:22 +0000
                Re: multi-line Strings Leif Roar Moldskred <leifm@dimnakorr.com> - 2012-12-18 07:52 -0600
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 20:58 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2012-12-18 09:10 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 20:56 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-18 19:05 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 20:42 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Jim Janney <jjanney@shell.xmission.com> - 2012-12-17 22:18 -0700
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-17 21:46 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-12-17 21:01 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 20:46 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-17 21:51 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-12-17 19:41 -0800
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-18 19:19 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-18 20:50 -0500
                Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-19 05:23 -0400
                Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-19 13:25 -0800
            Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:14 -0500
            Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:14 -0500
          Re: multi-line Strings Jukka Lahtinen <jtfjdehf@hotmail.com.invalid> - 2012-12-14 23:43 +0200
            Re: multi-line Strings Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-12-14 22:20 -0500
              Re: multi-line Strings Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom2@eastlink.ca> - 2012-12-17 20:47 -0400
  Re: multi-line Strings Jim Janney <jjanney@shell.xmission.com> - 2012-12-12 08:33 -0700
    Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-12 11:32 -0800
      Re: multi-line Strings markspace <-@.> - 2012-12-12 11:45 -0800
  Re: multi-line Strings Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2012-12-15 13:33 -0800
    Re: multi-line Strings Sven Köhler <remove-sven.koehler@gmail.com> - 2012-12-29 18:18 +0100

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