[Python-3000] Line continuation using ellipsis

[Georg Brandl]

Talin schrieb:
> I'm not sure that I am the first to bring this up, but I might as well 
> get it written down.
> 
> I've never liked using the backslash operator for line continuation, for 
> two reasons:
> 
> 1) It requires that it be the last character of a line, meaning that you 
> have to insure that there's no trailing whitespace, which can be 
> difficult with some editors.

Then use parentheses. That should be possible almost everywhere.
Also, if we have to have a line-continuation token, the backslash is a
good choice because it's present in so many other languages.

> 2) As a wise sage once said, "it looks like line noise on my monitor".

But it's end-of-line noise ;)

> I'm not proposing to remove the feature, however I'd like to see an 
> alternative method for declaring statements that cross a line boundary. 
> I seem to recall at one point someone suggesting the use of ellipsis, 
> which makes a lot of sense to me:
> 
>     sorted_result = partition_lower( input_list, pivot ) ...
>        + pivot ...
>        + partition_upper( input_list, pivot )
> 
> Parsing-wise, an ellipsis operator would have the following meaning: 
> Inside a parenthesized or bracketed expression, it would have the same 
> meaning it does now. Otherwise, it has the meaning "consume all 
> whitespace, including newlines".

This doesn't work with Py3k as the ellipsis is a general expression element
there. You can already write

...

and it will be short for

Ellipsis

cheers,
Georg


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