[Python-Dev] On quote styles

[Isaac Morland]

On Sun, 11 May 2008, Greg Ewing wrote:

>> While Python doesn't have a char type (yet), I still find the distinction
>> between 'c' and "abc" useful to show intent (especially given my C
>> background
>
> The way I tend to use them is that "xxx" is for data
> operated on by the program and seen by the user,
> and 'xxx' is for things that are only used internally,
> e.g. enumerated type values and attribute names for use
> by getattr().

I find myself doing something similar.  I use '' for anything that is a 
dictionary key and "" for things that are strings not meant to be used for 
indexing, in particular the things that are looked up.  Except when I 
don't.

When I am generating HTML using the ll.xist library, which uses constructs 
like this:

html.a (u'link text', href="http://url.goes.here/")

I have just started using '' for text element contents and "" for 
attribute values.  This way the attribute values (keyword parameters) look 
almost the exact same as in actual HTML (only difference is the commas) 
(and the escaping), and my editor seems to be designed for C-style 
languages where '' are for character constants and "" are for strings so 
it highlights them differently.

My personal opinion is that one should not use the different quoting 
styles at random, but I am inclined to believe that there is no single 
guideline that can apply to everybody.

Isaac Morland			CSCF Web Guru
DC 2554C, x36650		WWW Software Specialist