Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!usenet.ukfsn.org!not-for-mail From: Martin Gregorie Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: multi-line Strings Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:56:15 +0000 (UTC) Organization: UK Free Software Network Lines: 32 Message-ID: References: <7f36342c-2331-4484-874b-4a0f8953f160@googlegroups.com> <50c61150$0$293$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <50c6413a$0$293$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> <50c6598d$0$290$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> NNTP-Posting-Host: 84.45.235.129 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: localhost.localdomain 1355190975 18788 84.45.235.129 (11 Dec 2012 01:56:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@localhost.localdomain NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:56:15 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Pan/0.139 (Sexual Chocolate; GIT bf56508 git://git.gnome.org/pan2) Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:20238 On Mon, 10 Dec 2012 17:35:37 -0800, markspace wrote: > On 12/10/2012 4:17 PM, Martin Gregorie wrote: >> I've always liked the Awk and Perl default convention of delimiting >> regexes with slashes: /regex/ - if their compilers can deal with this >> cleanly, the Java compiler could surely do the same. > > Perl, especially, and "cleanly" don't belong in the same sentence. Or > paragraph. Or solar system. > Yes, couldn't agree more. The only languages I've used that approach the ugliness of Perl are Python (its object construction and handling are every bit as nasty as Perls) and RPG II (designing an HLL to look exactly like a fixed field assembler is just plain perverse). I'll use awk+bash in preference to Perl any day. However, Perl almost certainly inherited its use of /regex/ delimiters from awk, which is a fairly elegant and minimal scripting system and I do like those delimiters. Don't forget that Perl, in its earliest form, was very obviously built by mashing together a lot of Bourn Shell syntax with bits nicked from awk and sed and completed by shovelling in the most useful bits of several small UNIX utilities. Larry Wall has always acknowledged that as being its origin. Its got a bit more structured and usable since then, but IMO its still damned ugly. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |