Replacing # with backticks for exotic identifiers

[Charles Oliver Nutter]

For me, the # syntax is reminiscent of Ruby documentation syntax, as
in Object#to_s, so I kinda like it. But really any syntax that's not
too intrusive is cool with me. Backquotes seems like a reasonable
option too.

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Paul Benedict <pbenedict at apache.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I didn't initiate this suggestion, but I am passing it along because
> it is really good, imo. Furthermore, I've complained about the #""
> syntax and, well, I still complain about it :-)
>
> Artur Biesiadowski, in the Coin Dev mailing list, made the suggestion
> to replace the #"" notation with backticks [1]. I think his suggestion
> was great for at least four reasons:
>
> 1) Closures might use pound symbol
> 2) Method literals might use pound symbol
> 3) JavaDoc already uses pound symbol
> 4) Backticks are commonly supported by several RDMS to represent
> exotic identifiers (like table names with spaces).
>
> Is the pound symbol really the choice favorite by the participants in
> this list? John and Remi, unless your heart is set on it, can you
> consider a change with regards to all the other language changes now
> going to happen?
>
> Paul
>
> [1] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/coin-dev/2009-November/002556.html
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