[fpc-devel] Some thoughts on multi-line string support, and a possible syntax that I think is perfectly clean and Pascal-ish.

[Marco van de Voort]

Op 2019-07-04 om 15:07 schreef Ben Grasset:
> Multiline strings, like everything in a source file, are exactly what 
> you write them as.
>
Take a large pascal file with several strings. Normal, non multi-line 
strings.

Now, as a thought experiment, remove the closing ' from one of the 
strings at the top.

In the case of no multiline string support: error on the line with the 
missing closing string comment.

With multiline string support (just activated the possibility, assume no 
multistring lines in the file), error on whatever follows the next '  in 
the file.

Exact nature and location of the error depending on whatever is in the 
string. Think of fun cases like that the string finds something like 
doprocedure (',',',','); and image this happens to you in somebody 
other's code.

I hope this makes it clear that whatever decision or syntax the 
discussion ends up with, multiline strings should be turned off by 
default, and it is wise to only use them in short files. (a kind like 
resourcestrings are often also collected in a separate unit).