Fwd: String templates - JEP-459, JEP-465

[Brian Goetz]

The following was received on amber-spec-comments.

The opinion expressed here (which can be paraphrased as "why don't you 
just do string interpolation, it's safe and simple") is a familiar one, 
and one which has been discussed over and over.  The belief that there 
are "no security concerns" with string interpolation is incorrect, and 
"just do string interpolation" remains an anti-goal.

The author here might be correct that the intersection of "acceptably 
secure" and "acceptably complex" is empty; in this case we will do 
nothing.  But we are continuing to explore this space to find something 
that balances all the concerns.




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	String templates - JEP-459, JEP-465
Date: 	Sun, 22 Dec 2024 01:27:16 +0100
From: 	Mariusz Lotko <mariusz.lotko at gmail.com>
To: 	amber-spec-comments at openjdk.java.net



Good evening,

I read all three JEPs of String Templates and I'm a bit surprised that 
we need such a complicated feature.

I bet that most Java developers simply _expects_  simple string 
interpolation, that they will be able to replace not-quite-readable 
string concatenations like:


     "This is " + some.strange().callsWith("an argument") + " the end"


with something like (I like JS version the most)


     `This is ${some.strange().callsWith("an argument")} the end`


or

     ```

     This is the multilne version

    ${some.strange().callsWith("an argument")}

    the multiline end

    ```


At compiler level that would be "simply" replace to old-good 
contatenation implementation which is StringBuilder calls.

No security concerns (other than with current + operator), no (hidden) 
runtime penalties like the proposed FMT feature has to introduce.

"String Templates" as language feature opened for externding by the 
libraries seem to me quite complicated. The benefit that we provide 
templates built into the language does not seem to be attractive - why 
should I use built-in templates instead of 3rd party 
Velocity/JTwig/whatever else?

Best regards,

Mariusz Lotko
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