Consider Zig-style multiline strings

[omentic]

Hi, I noticed you've added multiline strings with the usual """ triple quote syntax.

I think the triple quote syntax is a bad multiline string syntax. It's the de facto standard, of course, but I think the de facto standard is bad. You can't nest quotes without escapes, you can't indent multiline strings to be at the same level as the rest of the code (or if you do you have to cut off some leading characters, arbitrarily), you can't insert raw characters directly (or if you do you have to change how your trailing """ works).

There is an approach taken by Zig which fixes all of these points. They use a prefix operator \\ that behaves much like //. It recognizes anything until the end of the line, and then -- if there is a \\ starting the next line -- appends it to the previous one, inserting a newline in between. This means that multiline strings can be indented at any level and \\ and """ and any sort of raw character can exist freely since \\ recognizes anything until the end of the line. It's pretty nice IMO.

{
  notes: \\This is a multiline strings.
         \\Keeps formatting as-is.
}

This of course doesn't work if you want to be whitespace-and-newline insensitive like JSON, but given you've got multiline strings I'd imagine that's not a goal of the project to begin with.

Anyway, cheers! Just something to consider.

[antonmedv]

Yes, this is the first thing I wanted to research on. The Zig style of multi-line strings is pretty cool. It completely solves the problem of indentation and escapes. But I think for maml it is not a perfect choose.

I like a clear indicator of what a multiline string is finished. No need for ;. Or waiting for the next token in the parser, which simplifies parsing implementation.

Another thing is editor support. For comfortable writing Zig-style multi-line strings you need good editor support with highlighting and automatic insertion of \\. And I don't really think indent is a big problem. Yes, it makes it less beautiful, but I think if no indent simplifies understanding of multi-line strings.

And especially Python syntax simplifies writing multi-line strings in command line. You can simply insert a new line and start typing your code without indenting and typing another syntax.

Also, I don't really like what zig-style syntax really looks like comments. Usually, comments have additional space after those symbols.

         // Comments have
         // space after token.
         \\And Zig's multile strings,
         \\no not have space.

Ability to paste and copy parts of code for me was the biggest trade-off. I think not having an indent in whole multiline strings is actually a nice "feature". Yes, it's not that pretty, especially in very nested structures, but I think these trade-offs are okay.

Each syntax has its own trade-offs. I decided to stay with the more familiar syntax, which does not require editor support.

[antonmedv]

Here is another discussion about different syntax for mutliline strings: #13