Tim BrayFew strata of geekery are more obsessive than regular-expression geekery. So let’s have some fun! In https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2024/09/22/Unbackslashing I explain why using the usual backslash “\” for escaping is hellishly inconvenient in a current project and propose replacing it with one of «, —, “, ¶, §, or ~. This Friday, I’ll be running some polls tagged #unbackslash to let you all join in.
rob pike@timbray One improving factor is an idea from Steve Bourne that I vaguely remember implementing in qed. It's a great simplification for escapes: Don't do the doubling. If you see a backslash, count how many there are, and remove only one for this layer of escape. It makes a huge difference in the wieldliness (to coin a term) of escape characters.
Marsh Ray