[Python-Dev] Raw string syntax inconsistency

[Christian Heimes]

Hello,

the topic came up on the python-users list today. The raw string syntax
has a minor inconsistency. The ru"" notation is a syntax error although
we support rb"". Neither rb"" nor ru"" are supported on Python 2.7.

Python 3.3:

  works: r"", ur"", br"", rb""
  syntax error: ru""

Python 2.7:

  works: r"", ur"", br""
  syntax error: ru"", rb""

The ru"" notation isn't necessary for Python 2 compatibility but it's
still an inconsistency. The docs [1] also state that 'r' is a prefix,
not a suffix. On the other hand the lexical definition doesn't mention
the u"" notation yet.

Christian

[1]
http://docs.python.org/py3k/reference/lexical_analysis.html#string-and-bytes-literals