Re: Mandis Quotes (aka retiring """ and ''')

From: Jeff Epler (jepler_at_unpythonic.net)
Date: 10/04/04 

Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 10:48:28 -0500
To: exarkun@divmod.com

On Mon, Oct 04, 2004 at 03:07:17PM +0000, exarkun@divmod.com wrote:
> Responding to "replacing them by a single 'x' that suffices for everything":
> No, it doesn't.
> It replaces them with an arbitrary number of string delimiters. 'x'
> is one, but 'y' is another, 'Would you like some spam?' is yet
> another. You must still be careful in selecting your delimiter,
> lest you accidentally use one included in your string literal. The
> chances of doing so are greatly decreased, but they are still
> non-zero.
> The idea doesn't seem all bad, but it doesn't seem like a great
> enough improvement to justify very nearly breaking every Python
> program ever written in dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of
> different places.
> Jp

Ouch. You're right. Here's another program whose meaning changes
radically with mandis-quotes:

    print '-' * 72
    do_the_real_work()
    print '-' * 72

Any program that contains the same double-quoted string twice would change
meaning under this proposal.

On the other hand, does this program have any meaning left?
    print 'x'
it must be an unterminated mandis-quoted string.

OK, shoot this proposal right now.

Jeff

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