[Python-ideas] New str whitespace cleaning method?

[Wolfgang Maier]

Joao S. O. Bueno <jsbueno at ...> writes:

> 
> What about an STR method for just formatting whitespace?
> 
> I propose starting with something that would just replace all occurrences of
> white-space sequences with a single white-space, and another mode that
> does the same, but preserves newlines.
> 
> That way multiline strings could be used in a straight way to enter
> any desired construct.
> 
> I know of textwrap.dedent - but it is not quite the same behavior, and
this is a
> case wher having method call postfixed to the string has clear advantages
> over a function call with the same string - since the function name
> would have to be placed between the "strign destiantion" - which
> denotes its purpose, and the string text itself:
> 
> Ex.:
> 
> log.warn(dedent("""Hello dear sir,
>                               I am sorry to inform you
>                               the spanish inquisition
>                               has arrived"""))
> 
> Against:
> log.warn("""Hello dear sir,
>                   I am sorry to inform you
>                   the spanish inquisition
>                   has arrived""".lint())
> 

Haven't really thought that through, but couldn't you write a decorator that
does the dedenting, and that you then use on your warn()?
This way, you wouldn't have to care about the formatting at all in your
actual code.
Best,
Wolfgang