From: Bertram Scharpf <lists@...>
Date: 2006-04-04T03:49:32+09:00
Subject: Here documents and \

Hi,

I tried to remove the final newline from a here document:

  a = <<EOT
  Hi, there.\
  EOT

I wasn't very surprised this led to an error. Anyway I ask
myself whether the error is an ineviable consequence and
whether the error message reflects the circumstances
correctly.

If you like to reproduce it, you can use these oneliners:

localhost ~ # echo -ne 'a = <<EOT\n<<<\\\n>>>\nEOT\nputs a.inspect\n' | ruby
"<<<>>>\n"
localhost ~ # echo -ne 'a = <<EOT\n<<<\\\n\nEOT\nputs a.inspect\n' | ruby
"<<<\n"
localhost ~ # echo -ne 'a = <<EOT\n<<<\\\nEOT\nputs a.inspect\n' | ruby
-:4: can't find string "EOT" anywhere before EOF
-:1: parse error, unexpected $, expecting tSTRING_CONTENT or
tSTRING_DBEG or tSTRING_DVAR or tSTRING_END
localhost ~ #

I tried the 1.8.4 and 1.9 versions.

Bertram


-- 
Bertram Scharpf
Stuttgart, Deutschland/Germany
http://www.bertram-scharpf.de