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Feature #9678

closed

New heredoc syntax

Added by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago. Updated about 2 years ago.

Status:
Feedback
Assignee:
-
Target version:
-
[ruby-core:61696]

Description

For whatever it is worth, i've just had this idea of a new heredoc syntax for some programming language:

class C
  def f(x)
    print >>Message1 + >>Message2
Message1:
> Literal text
> ------------
> Here text.
>
Message2:
>> Text with interpolation and escapes
>> -----------------------------------
>> Here text with interpolation: #{ x }.
>>
  end
end

Updated by nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada) almost 10 years ago

And the expected output?

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

Sorry, of course:

f(42)

i would expect to output

Literal text
------------
Here text.

Text with interpolation and escapes
-----------------------------------
Here text with interpolation: 42.

(There should be one more blank line at the end.)

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

IMO, this would allow a program with heredocs to be easily readable without having to indent heredocs. Especially if editor's syntax highlighting will highlight > and >>.

Updated by nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada) almost 10 years ago

  • Status changed from Open to Feedback

Could you summarize your proposal concretely?

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

I try to summarize again, hopefully better, and with a bit different syntax.

Example

class C
  def f(x)
    print <<Message1: + <<Message2: + <<Message3:
Message1:
> 1. Some text
>    without any intepolation (#{ x }) or escape sequences (\n)
>
Message2:
>> 2. Some text\
>>    with interpolation (#{ x }) and escape sequences.\n
Message3:
>> 3. Some mixed text: \
> #{ x } is replaced with
>> #{ x }
  end
end

C.new.f(42)

should print

1. Some text
   without any intepolation (#{ x }) or escape sequences (\n)

2. Some text   with interpolation (42) and escape sequences.

3. Some mixed text: #{ x } is replaced with
42

Explanation

In each line preceeded with single >, the leading > and one space are
removed, and the rest is interpreted as a single-quoted string:

> <line content>

is the same as

'<line content>
'

In each line preceeded with >>, the leading >> and one space are
removed, and the rest is interpreted as a double-quoted string:

>> <line content>

is the same as

"<line content>
"

Then lines are concatenated.

I hope my proposal is more clear now.

Update. The only difference in interpretation with quoted strings will probably be that quotes would not need to be escaped.

Updated by rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas) almost 10 years ago

Is it possible to start the '>' anywhere besides the first char?

def my_method
  a = <<Message1:
  Message1:
    > Some
    > content
end

Or even something anonymous like:

def my_method
  a = <<:
    > Some
    > content
end

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas wrote:

Is it possible to start the '>' anywhere besides the first char?

Good point, why not. My motivation was however to be able to write heredocs without indentation in a nice and clear way.

I have just thought of proposing exactly the same "anonymous" syntax.

Updated by rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas) almost 10 years ago

What should the scope for interpolation be?

def my_method
  a = 1
  b = <<:message
end

a = 2
message:
>> #{a}

my_method # what is the output?

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas wrote:

What should the scope for interpolation be?

I had thought about it, but i did not see a better option than to require the heredoc to be defined immediately after the line where it is used, as usual.

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

Yes, it has to be defined immediately, otherwise it would be impossible to reuse the same heredoc "identifier" (Message:), and it may conflict with program identifiers.

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

Some use cases for fun:

system <<:
> ./configure
> make
> make install

eval <<:
> 10.times do
>   puts <<:
>   > Who is the silly person who wrote this program?
> end

Updated by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov) almost 10 years ago

I have just realized this would cause a difficulty with pasting code into irb. This would not be the first, however, -- the following cannot be pasted into irb either:

class C
  def f
    1
  end
end

puts C.new
  .f
Actions #13

Updated by hsbt (Hiroshi SHIBATA) about 2 years ago

  • Project changed from 14 to Ruby master
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