Implementing the multi-line strings with the backslash is simple enough (see my earlier post; I got the line number wrong, by the way, it's around 421) but causing them to ignore following whitespace is probably a bit harder. It seems to me that this is a typical problem in many programming languages. Probably the real solution is just to use (str ...) and ignore the resultant extra code; unless you're printing multi-line messages in a tight loop, I can't imagine it having any effect on your program's performance whatsoever.
On Apr 4, 1:35 am, samppi <rbysam...@gmail.com> wrote: > I don't really want it so much for documentation strings—they're > already formatted in a standard way—than just being able to embed > large literal text in my code without making the code nigh unreadable. > Here's an example: > > (...lots of indented code > (if (= m :auto-detect) > (if (<= detected-indent n) > (raise parse-error i "first nonempty > line in a literal scalar is indented by %s, but it must be indented > futher in than the indentation level that the scalar is in (at level > %s)" [detected-indent n]) > detected-indent) > ...more indented code) > > (...lots of indented code > (if (= m :auto-detect) > (if (<= detected-indent n) > (raise parse-error i "first nonempty > line in a literal scalar is indented by %s, but it must be indented > futher in than the indentation level that the scalar is in (at level > %s)" [detected-indent n]) > detected-indent) > ...more indented code) > > I'd also like to emphasize the importance, for me, of making the > folded lines' indentation disappear. It would be annoying and ugly if > literal text had to be mushed against the left edge of the code. I'd > be fine with triple quotes or backslashed line-breaks, as long as they > do this—that is, as long as they make the code more readable. > > I suppose I could put those long strings inside Java resource bundles, > since they're intended for the end user anyway, but is that really > necessary for a script? :( > > On Apr 3, 11:02 pm, Laurent PETIT <laurent.pe...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > 2009/4/4 samppi <rbysam...@gmail.com> > > > > I wish I could do this: > > > > (code... > > > "Long error string that doesn't fit within 80 characters but is > > > descriptive, \ > > > which is good, right?" > > > ...more code...) > > > > (The string above would say, "Long error string that doesn't fit > > > within 80 characters but is descriptive, which is good, right?") > > > > People put code on many lines because it's much more readable if lines > > > don't get too long. > > > Yeah, this is seen a lot e.g. for functions docstrings. And it makes > > creating a graphical representation more difficult, you have to guess when > > there are real new lines, and where not. > > > But are willing to ask the user to explicitly place new line characters ? > > How would that work ? And if that would work, I guess the readability and > > usability would suffer from this. > > > I guess the simplest solution for the docstrings problem would be to rewrite > > correctly the docstring, no matter your own conventions are for the number > > of characters per line in the rest of the code. > > > Or maybe have 2 flavors of strings : > > "this kind of strings can span multiple lines > > but newlines will be interpreted as just a single space > > " > > > and > > """this kind of strings is for real multiline > > strings where each newline will be interpreted as a newline in > > the resulting string.""" > > > OR maybe as you suggested, a special symbol at the end of the line > > indicating the reader to not include a new line : > > "this string will have just one line \ > > thanks to the "\\"+<newline> separator. Any other occurence of the slash > > separator not followed by newline or one of the allowed java characters > > would be a compilation error." > > > > But this is not possible for strings without doing > > > calling (str ...). This is relatively expensive, right? (str) has to > > > create a new StringBuilder object. > > > > Anyways, it'd be really cool if the Clojure reader did this. My ideal > > > would be that indentation before the continuing line would become one > > > space, or perhaps something similar. I don't think it would make > > > Clojure too much more complicated—in my mind, any small complication > > > would be worth the readability. How hard would this be to implement? > > > Would this be syntactically ambiguous? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
