[Python-ideas] Briefer string format

[Nick Coghlan]

On 20 July 2015 at 14:46, Steve Dower <Steve.Dower at microsoft.com> wrote:
> So, macros basically? The real ones, not #define.
>
> What's wrong with special casing text strings (a little bit more than they
> already have been)?

I've wished for a cleaner shell command invocation syntax many more
times than I've wished for easier string formatting, but I *have*
wished for both. Talking to the scientific Python folks, they've often
wished for a cleaner syntax to create deferred expressions with the
full power of Python's statement level syntax.

Explicitly named macros could deliver all three of those, without the
downsides of implicit globally installed macros that are
indistinguishable from regular syntax.

By contrast, the string prefix system is inherently cryptic (being
limited to single letters only) and not open to extension and
experimentation outside the reference interpreter.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia