[Python-ideas] Allowing comments after line continuations

[Terry Jan Reedy]

On 5/17/2013 5:37 AM, Serhiy Storchaka wrote:

> I'm only -0.1 on allowing spaces after "\" line continuation. While "\ "
> causes SyntaxError at compile time it is not an issue. And trailing
> whitespaces should be avoided in any cases, after "\" or not.

Python never requires trailing whitespace, so there never a need for 
trailing white space (except possibly within a multi-line string) and 
therefore no need (with the exection above) of getting into the habit of 
adding whitespace. Decent programming editors should have a means to 
strip trailing whitespace (Idle does)*. Run that (a good habit) and 
'xys\ ' is fixed. The Python repository now rejects (new) code with 
trailing whitespace.

Idle's Strip Trailing Whitespace does so on all lines, even if part of a 
multiline string. That may or may not be what one wants. To avoid the 
stripping, appending '\n\' to the line -- which also makes the 
whitespace visible and the intention clear.

s = '''abd \n\
efg'''
print(s)
# produces
abd
efg
(move cursor to detect space after d)

--
Terry Jan Reedy