From: shevegen@... Date: 2016-04-12T15:00:37+00:00 Subject: [ruby-core:74898] [Ruby trunk Feature#12272] Accepting HTML entity name in string literal Issue #12272 has been updated by Robert A. Heiler. I don't know. I am not really against it, also not really for it but to be honest, I can't remember either of these variants anyway. :) Would this actually be used/usable? ---------------------------------------- Feature #12272: Accepting HTML entity name in string literal https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/12272#change-58024 * Author: Tsuyoshi Sawada * Status: Open * Priority: Normal * Assignee: ---------------------------------------- String literal allows the escape character `\u` to describe a character using UTF-8 character code like this: ~~~ruby "\u201c" # left double quote "\u2191" # up arrow ~~~ This is useful in typing characters that are not easy to input from the keyboard. However, normal people do not memorize the UTF-8 codes by heart. The HTML symbol entity name is the place where we can compromise (although it is not available for the entire UTF-8), I think. I would like the string literal to be extended to accept HTML entity names and interpret them as the corresponding UTF-8 characters. I do not have a definite idea for the syntax, but a candidate can be an escape character `\& ... ;`, so that we can type: ~~~ruby "\“" # left double quote "\↑" # up arrow ~~~ Currently, `"\&"` is interpreted as `"&"`, so this will be a compatibility breaking change, and if that is not desirable, perhaps a different syntax may be considered. -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/ Unsubscribe: