Decision for String literals #199

proposals/p0199_decision.md

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+# Decision for: String literals
+
+<!--
+Part of the Carbon Language project, under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM
+Exceptions. See /LICENSE for license information.
+SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+-->
+
+Proposal accepted on 2021-02-23
+
+Affirming:
+
+-   [austern](https://github.com/austern)
+-   [chandlerc](https://github.com/chandlerc)
+-   [geoffromer](https://github.com/geoffromer)
+-   [gribozavr](https://github.com/gribozavr)
+-   [josh11b](https://github.com/josh11b)
+-   [zygoloid](https://github.com/zygoloid)
+
+Abstaining:
+
+-   [noncombatant](https://github.com/noncombatant)
+-   [tituswinters](https://github.com/tituswinters)
+
+## Rationale
+
+This proposal supports the goal of making Carbon code
+[easy to read, understand, and write](/docs/project/goals.md#code-that-is-easy-to-read-understand-and-write),
+by ensuring that essentially every kind of string content can be represented in
+a Carbon string literal, in a way that is natural, toolable, and easy to read:
+
+-   Multi-line strings are supported by multi-line string literals, and the
+    rules for stripping leading indentation enhance readability by allowing
+    those literals to avoid visually disrupting the indentation structure of the
+    code.
+-   Strings that make extensive use of `\` and `"` are supported by raw string
+    literals.
+-   Treating raw versus ordinary and single-line versus multi-line as orthogonal
+    allows Carbon to support all 4 combinations while keeping the language
+    simple.
+-   The handling of `\#` within raw string literals makes it possible to use
+    escape sequences within raw string literals when necessary, for example to
+    embed arbitrary byte values or Unicode data. This ensures that the
+    programmer is never prevented from using a raw string literal, or forced to
+    assemble a single logical string by concatenating ordinary and raw literals
+    (with the negligible and fixable exception of strings like
+    `"\\################"`, as noted in the proposal).
+-   "File type indicators" make it easier for tooling to understand the contents
+    of literals, in order to provide features such as syntax highlighting,
+    automated formatting, and potentially even certain kinds of static analysis,
+    for code that's embedded in string literals.
+-   Support for non-Unicode strings by way of `\x` ensures "support for software
+    outside the primary use case".
+-   Avoids unnecessary invention, following Rust and particularly Swift.