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Should something be added to the Java language to make multi-line Strings more clear?

Maybe like what PHP has?

Right now, I have a mess like this:

private final String mLomoishShader =
"precision mediump float;\n" +
"uniform sampler2D tex_sampler_0;\n" +
"uniform vec2 seed;\n" +
"uniform float stepsizeX;\n" +
"uniform float stepsizeY;\n" +
"uniform float stepsize;\n" +
"uniform vec2 scale;\n" +
"uniform float inv_max_dist;\n" +
"varying vec2 v_texcoord;\n" +
"float rand(vec2 loc) {\n" +
" float theta1 = dot(loc, vec2(0.9898, 0.233));\n" +
" float theta2 = dot(loc, vec2(12.0, 78.0));\n" +
" float value = cos(theta1) * sin(theta2) + sin(theta1) * cos(theta2);\n" +
// keep value of part1 in range: (2^-14 to 2^14).
" float temp = mod(197.0 * value, 1.0) + value;\n" +
" float part1 = mod(220.0 * temp, 1.0) + temp;\n" +
" float part2 = value * 0.5453;\n" +
" float part3 = cos(theta1 + theta2) * 0.43758;\n" +
" return fract(part1 + part2 + part3);\n" +
"}\n" +
"void main() {\n" +
// sharpen
" vec3 nbr_color = vec3(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);\n" +
" vec2 coord;\n" +
" vec4 color = texture2D(tex_sampler_0, v_texcoord);\n" +
" coord.x = v_texcoord.x - 0.5 * stepsizeX;\n" +
" coord.y = v_texcoord.y - stepsizeY;\n" +
" nbr_color += texture2D(tex_sampler_0, coord).rgb - color.rgb;\n" +
" coord.x = v_texcoord.x - stepsizeX;\n" +
" coord.y = v_texcoord.y + 0.5 * stepsizeY;\n" +
" nbr_color += texture2D(tex_sampler_0, coord).rgb - color.rgb;\n" +
" coord.x = v_texcoord.x + stepsizeX;\n" +
" coord.y = v_texcoord.y - 0.5 * stepsizeY;\n" +
" nbr_color += texture2D(tex_sampler_0, coord).rgb - color.rgb;\n" +
" coord.x = v_texcoord.x + stepsizeX;\n" +
" coord.y = v_texcoord.y + 0.5 * stepsizeY;\n" +
" nbr_color += texture2D(tex_sampler_0, coord).rgb - color.rgb;\n" +
" vec3 s_color = vec3(color.rgb + 0.3 * nbr_color);\n" +
// cross process
" vec3 c_color = vec3(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);\n" +
" float value;\n" +
" if (s_color.r < 0.5) {\n" +
" value = s_color.r;\n" +
" } else {\n" +
" value = 1.0 - s_color.r;\n" +
" }\n" +
" float red = 4.0 * value * value * value;\n" +
" if (s_color.r < 0.5) {\n" +
" c_color.r = red;\n" +
" } else {\n" +
" c_color.r = 1.0 - red;\n" +
" }\n" +
" if (s_color.g < 0.5) {\n" +
" value = s_color.g;\n" +
" } else {\n" +
" value = 1.0 - s_color.g;\n" +
" }\n" +
" float green = 2.0 * value * value;\n" +
" if (s_color.g < 0.5) {\n" +
" c_color.g = green;\n" +
" } else {\n" +
" c_color.g = 1.0 - green;\n" +
" }\n" +
" c_color.b = s_color.b * 0.5 + 0.25;\n" +
// blackwhite
" float dither = rand(v_texcoord + seed);\n" +
" vec3 xform = clamp((c_color.rgb - 0.15) * 1.53846, 0.0, 1.0);\n" +
" vec3 temp = clamp((color.rgb + stepsize - 0.15) * 1.53846, 0.0, 1.0);\n" +
" vec3 bw_color = clamp(xform + (temp - xform) * (dither - 0.5), 0.0, 1.0);\n" +
// vignette
" coord = v_texcoord - vec2(0.5, 0.5);\n" +
" float dist = length(coord * scale);\n" +
" float lumen = 0.85 / (1.0 + exp((dist * inv_max_dist - 0.73) * 20.0)) + 0.15;\n" +
" gl_FragColor = vec4(bw_color * lumen, color.a);\n" +
"}\n";

On 12/10/2012 11:22 AM, bob smith wrote:
> Should something be added to the Java language to make multi-line Strings more clear?
>
> Maybe like what PHP has?
>
> Right now, I have a mess like this:
>
> private final String mLomoishShader =
> "precision mediump float;\n" +
> "uniform sampler2D tex_sampler_0;\n" +

It could be added.

PHP has it. C# has it.

But I would not consider it a high priority.

It is most useful for demo code.

For real code then large chunks of texts would usually
be stored externally (file, DB etc.) not embedded into
the code.

Arne

On 12/10/12 8:43 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/10/2012 11:22 AM, bob smith wrote:
>> Should something be added to the Java language to make multi-line
>> Strings more clear?
>>
>> Maybe like what PHP has?
>>
>> Right now, I have a mess like this:
>>
>> private final String mLomoishShader =
>> "precision mediump float;\n" +
>> "uniform sampler2D tex_sampler_0;\n" +
>
> It could be added.
>
> PHP has it. C# has it.
>
> But I would not consider it a high priority.
>
> It is most useful for demo code.
>
> For real code then large chunks of texts would usually
> be stored externally (file, DB etc.) not embedded into
> the code.
+1
That definitely looks like it should be in a separate file. If the
shader is closely related to the class which contains that declaration,
I would look into using Class.getResourceAsStream() to load it.

If the class itself can be made to use any shader, I would externalize
it entirely, passing the shader text as a construction parameter perhaps.

On 12/10/2012 8:43 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> It could be added....
>
> But I would not consider it a high priority.
>
> It is most useful for demo code.
>
> For real code then large chunks of texts would usually
> be stored externally (file, DB etc.) not embedded into
> the code.

I agree. I was going to suggest that bob use a resource, in fact, which
is of course an external file.

<http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/lang/resources.html#class>

I think what I'd like more than multi-line support is support for
strings without escape sequences. Like:

String regex = """\s[0-9](\.|\*)[_a-zA-Z]\w""";

is a lot more readable than trying to mentally decode all of the double
slashes that regex in Java frequently requires.

(That regex does nothing useful, btw; it's just an example.)

On 12/10/12 9:42 AM, markspace wrote:
> On 12/10/2012 8:43 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>
>> It could be added....
>>
>> But I would not consider it a high priority.
>>
>> It is most useful for demo code.
>>
>> For real code then large chunks of texts would usually
>> be stored externally (file, DB etc.) not embedded into
>> the code.
>
> I agree. I was going to suggest that bob use a resource, in fact, which
> is of course an external file.
>
> <http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/technotes/guides/lang/resources.html#class>
>
>
> I think what I'd like more than multi-line support is support for
> strings without escape sequences. Like:
>
> String regex = """\s[0-9](\.|\*)[_a-zA-Z]\w""";
>
> is a lot more readable than trying to mentally decode all of the double
> slashes that regex in Java frequently requires.
>
> (That regex does nothing useful, btw; it's just an example.)
IntelliJ IDEA actually has a way to open just the expression in its own
edit window. The expression in the edit window is in the expression
language (regex in this case), so no Java escaping is necessary. You
can then modify it, and IDEA will add the appropriate escaping back in.

They support this for many languages in many contexts. Its a pretty
nifty feature IMHO.

On 12/10/2012 9:51 AM, Daniel Pitts wrote:

> IntelliJ IDEA actually has a way to open just the expression in its own
> edit window.


That is indeed a nifty feature. However I believe in principle a
programming language should be readable without something having to
translate it for you. Java regex fails that test often enough where I
think a non-escaped string constant would be a benefit overall.

On 12/10/2012 1:27 PM, markspace wrote:
> On 12/10/2012 9:51 AM, Daniel Pitts wrote:
>
>> IntelliJ IDEA actually has a way to open just the expression in its own
>> edit window.
>
>
> That is indeed a nifty feature. However I believe in principle a
> programming language should be readable without something having to
> translate it for you. Java regex fails that test often enough where I
> think a non-escaped string constant would be a benefit overall.

FORTRAN solved this problem half a century ago:

5HHELLO
^^^^^
here's the string

13HHELLO, WORLD.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
here's the string

3H1233H456
^^^ ^^^
here are the strings

8H1233H456
^^^^^^^^
here's the string

12H 1233H456
^^^^^^^^^^^^
here's the string

There was, of course, a certain amount of tedium (not to mention
opportunity for error) in manually counting each string, but if
Those Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear are what you crave ...

--
Eric Sosman
d

On 12/10/2012 10:43 AM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 12/10/2012 11:22 AM, bob smith wrote:
>> Should something be added to the Java language to make multi-line
>> Strings more clear?
>>
>> Maybe like what PHP has?
>>
>> Right now, I have a mess like this:
>>
>> private final String mLomoishShader =
>> "precision mediump float;\n" +
>> "uniform sampler2D tex_sampler_0;\n" +
>
> It could be added.
>
> PHP has it. C# has it.
>

likewise, Lua, as a common extension to JavaScript, ...


in my language, there are several ways of doing it:
var str=
"first line
second line
third line
";

var str=
"""first line
second line
third line
""";

var str=
<[[first line
second line
third line]]>;

where the 3rd form may be nested, but is otherwise about the same as the
second form.

the main difference between the first form and the latter forms is that
the first form still interprets \ escapes, whereas the latter forms
don't use \ escapes.

note, it is also possible to use \ to avoid encoding newlines as well:
"first-word \
second-word"
where the \ will eat the newline and any following whitespace.


another difference has to do with maximum string length allowed in the
parser:
the first form is currently limited to around 4096 characters per string
constant;
the latter forms handle strings of up to 1MB IIRC (it is either a 1MB
max, or a 1MB initial/expandable buffer, I forget).


> But I would not consider it a high priority.
>
> It is most useful for demo code.
>
> For real code then large chunks of texts would usually
> be stored externally (file, DB etc.) not embedded into
> the code.
>

a lot depends.


at least off in C land, I was using large arrays of strings to represent
"archives" for embedding collections of smaller resource files into C code.

technically, this was kind of "really annoying and sucked".


a little later on, this was replaced by embedding a WAD-based archive
format (ExWAD) into the PE/COFF (Windows EXE/DLL) and ELF (Linux
binary/shared-object) binaries. the WAD is historically related to the
id Software WAD formats (primarily Quake/Half-Life WAD2), but is not
exactly the same (different archive header, larger directory entries,
hierarchical, supports Deflate, ...).

mostly this is used for embedding metadata, script-code, or resource
data into program binaries (typically post-link). (for example: sticking
reflection metadata into a DLL so the script VM can use it easier,
stuffing the class-library into the relevant VM DLLs, ...).


functionally, though, this isn't too much different from embedding
resource files into the JAR though for Java code.

the main "obvious" difference is mostly that programs like WinZip and
similar wont be "clever" and assume that it is an archive, mostly
because they have no understanding of ExWAD.


note that most normal (plain data) data resources have their own files
or are stored in ZIP-based "pk" files though (for example:
"resource/data001.pk" for game data), vs say, "resource/gamex86.dll"
which may contain both Win32 / x86-specific native code, as well as a
lot of scripting-language code and similar.


or such...

On 12/10/2012 1:43 PM, Eric Sosman wrote:
> On 12/10/2012 1:27 PM, markspace wrote:
>> On 12/10/2012 9:51 AM, Daniel Pitts wrote:
>>> IntelliJ IDEA actually has a way to open just the expression in its own
>>> edit window.
>>
>> That is indeed a nifty feature. However I believe in principle a
>> programming language should be readable without something having to
>> translate it for you. Java regex fails that test often enough where I
>> think a non-escaped string constant would be a benefit overall.
>
> FORTRAN solved this problem half a century ago:
>
> 5HHELLO
> ^^^^^
> here's the string
>
> 13HHELLO, WORLD.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> here's the string
>
> 3H1233H456
> ^^^ ^^^
> here are the strings
>
> 8H1233H456
> ^^^^^^^^
> here's the string
>
> 12H 1233H456
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> here's the string
>
> There was, of course, a certain amount of tedium (not to mention
> opportunity for error) in manually counting each string, but if
> Those Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear are what you crave ...

If Java was going to implement it, then I think the C# way
would be preferably to the Fortran way.

Arne

PS: And for those that do not know C#, then C# has "" strings
with \ as escape like Java, but also has @"" string where
\ is not an escape and where line change are allowed.

On 12/10/2012 12:08 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> PS: And for those that do not know C#, then C# has "" strings
> with \ as escape like Java, but also has @"" string where
> \ is not an escape and where line change are allowed.


And that's what I was trying to imply with my triple quotes. I don't
know C# so I'm not aware of their syntax conventions. However, anything
at all works for me, as long as it's readable. (Manually counting the
characters in a string, not so much.)