Raw String Literal Library Support

[John Rose]

On Mar 14, 2018, at 6:11 AM, Peter Levart <peter.levart at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Pattern.compile(string)
> 
> Now if 'string' above is a constant, '~ string' could be a constant too. Combined with raw string literals, Pattern constants could be very compact.
> 
> 
> What do you think?

There's no need to introduce syntax in order to gain constant folding.

It's enough to ensure that Pattern.compiler(constant) reduces to
the ldc of a dynamic constant.  We are experimenting on such
ideas here:
  http://hg.openjdk.java.net/amber/amber/shortlog/condy-folding <http://hg.openjdk.java.net/amber/amber/shortlog/condy-folding>

(This is very vaguely similar to constexpr in C++, but less static.
It's early days, but enough to show that syntax isn't necessary.)

— John