Yes, I remember that discussion. I think it's a problem that could do with a good solution in Pike; but I *would* like to see a string syntax that solves three problems:
1) doesn't use \ for in-string quoting 2) doesn't need " or ' quoted nor any other regular regexp character 3) doesn't need newline quoted and accepts newline in string
These problems are common when using regexps and writing HTML or Pike-writing programs.
If it should be usable for regexps, it should have a fairly short syntax (for instance two leading, two exiting characters), but to be really useful it could be nice with an optional exit string.
I don't think anyone would really like to use a regexp syntax without the 's; it's too widely used and it takes too much energy to relearn.
/ Mirar
Previous text:
2003-09-21 13:52: Subject: wish: string with other quoting then \
Ah, the leaning toothpick syndrome. At least the most common special characters, such as "(", ")", "|", "[", "]", "^", and "$", don't need backslashes so it's not as bad as some other well known examples. If anything should be done about it I think it could just as well be to introduce a regexp syntax that don't use backslashes for quoting.
There was a discussion about other string syntaxes not long ago on the Pike list; search for the subject "multi line strings".
/ Martin Stjernholm, Roxen IS