[Python-Dev] PEP 215 redux: toward a simplified consensus?

[Greg Ewing]

I'm not sure I like the idea of using $ as the character
for prefixing interpolated strings. Somehow

  a = $"My name is $name"

looks confusing. I think it has something to do with the
fact that $ is appearing both inside and outside the
quotes, making my visual parser worry that the quotes
are misplaced.

Also, it uses up one of the three precious not-yet-used
characters, and I think we should keep those for some
future time when we really need them. We don't need one
for this -- there are plenty of operators available
that haven't yet been used on strings.

I suggest '^', since it does a nice job of suggesting
"inject stuff into this string". We can have both a
prefix form for compile-time interpolation:

  a = ^ "My name is $name"

and an infix form for run-time interpolation:

  a = "My name is $name" ^ dict

Greg Ewing, Computer Science Dept, +--------------------------------------+
University of Canterbury,	   | A citizen of NewZealandCorp, a	  |
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greg@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz	   +--------------------------------------+