[Python-ideas] Allowing comments after line continuations

[MRAB]

On 17/05/2013 01:04, Terry Jan Reedy wrote:
> On 5/16/2013 6:26 PM, Greg Ewing wrote:
>> Terry Jan Reedy wrote:
>>> In a string, \ escapes the immediate next character. This idea of \ at
>>> the *end* of a line, just before the newline character, is that it
>>> escapes the newline, *just as is does within a string*.
>>
>> That's how it currently works, but that doesn't mean it's
>> how it *should* work.
>
> My point is that there is a logical consistency that makes the current
> behavior consistent to me.
>
>> Especially if it leads to counter-intuitive
>
> To me, having the \ below escape the newline that occurs 60 characters
> later is 'counter-intuitive'.
>
> a + \ # a very long comment that seems to go on and on forever
>
> The \ where it is looks to me like a stray typo and a bug. I would be
> less surprised if the code below worked, so my counter-proposal is that
> \ escaping of newline work after comments.
>
>   >>> 1 + # current behavior \
> SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>
>   >>> 1 + # proposed behavior \
>       2
> 3
>   >>>
>
>   > and less-than-useful behaviour, which IMO it does.
>
> Useful is a different issue. My counte-proposal meets the goal of mixing
> comments with line-continuation.
>
So you want \ to have a special meaning at the end of a comment? I
don't even like the current behaviour of \ at the end of a raw string
literal! :-)

If it _did_ have a special meaning, I would've expected it to indicate
that the _comment itself_ is continued onto the next line.

-1