Matchertext: Towards Verbatim Interlanguage Embedding
Embedding text in one language within text of another is commonplace for numerous purposes, but usually requires tedious and error-prone “escaping” transformations on the embedded string. We propose a simple cross-language syntactic discipline, matchertext, which enables the safe embedding a string in any compliant language into a string in any other language via simple “copy-and-paste” – in particular with no escaping, obfuscation, or expansion of embedded strings. We apply this syntactic discipline to several common and frequently-embedded language syntaxes such as URIs, HTML, and JavaScript, exploring the benefits, costs, and compatibility issues in adopting the proposed matchertext discipline.
matchertext.pdf
preprint
openaccess
CC BY
413.63 KB
Adobe PDF
07291e5c295fbf3c6c3e14eb7dbe30d6