When you copy-paste Perl (or C, or Java, etc) code, do you not reformat that code anyways?
Sure, but you don't have to worry about reformatting making code that was correct suddenly and subtly incorrect.
Sure, but you don't have to worry about reformatting making code that was correct suddenly and subtly incorrect.
and
> invisible characters copied and pasted incorrectly to cause semantic errors
are two different issues. Reformatting doesn't insert (unexpected) invisible characters[1].
As to copy-pasting, this issue already exists in other forms with other languages. How long would it take most people to find the error here:
my $variable = “(＃｀д´)ﾉ”;
C:\Users\Mithaldu>perl -e " my $variable = “(＃｀д´)ﾉ”;"
Unrecognized character \x93; marked by <-- HERE after ariable = <-- HERE near column 18 at -e line 1.That being said, even with the helpful Perl error message, the less experienced developers may have issues trying to determine why Perl doesn't like their double-quote before they figure out what the real issue is.
I guess I should be clear, that I'm not hating on Perl. It's more that I see the "OMG! Semantic whitespace in Python!" argument as a bit of a red herring if that's your only reason for not using the language.