RepString("",1) throws in show

[stevengj]

julia> RepString("",1)
"Error showing value of type RepString:
ERROR: BoundsError: attempt to access 0-element Array{UInt8,1} at index [0]
 in next(::String, ::Int64) at ./strings/string.jl:88
 in next(::String, ::Int64) at /Applications/Julia-0.5.app/Contents/Resources/julia/lib/julia/sys.dylib:?
 in escape_string(::IOContext{Base.Terminals.TTYTerminal}, ::RepString, ::String) at ./strings/io.jl:139
 in print_quoted at ./strings/io.jl:158 [inlined]
 in show at ./strings/io.jl:72 [inlined]
 in show at ./replutil.jl:4 [inlined]
 in display(::Base.REPL.REPLDisplay{Base.REPL.LineEditREPL}, ::MIME{Symbol("text/plain")}, ::RepString) at ./REPL.jl:132
...

I noticed this when testing out #19548. (Bug appears to be in all Julia versions since at least 0.3.)

[stevengj]

(I don't know why we have this type at all. I can't find a single package that uses it explicitly, nor do we use it in Base except for s^n when s is a non-String string. When is efficient handling of repeated strings important?)

[ararslan]

@StefanKarpinski had mentioned merging SubString with String. Perhaps RepString (and maybe even RevString) could be merged with String as well?

[StefanKarpinski]

RepString should just be deleted and moved into LegacyStrings.

[StefanKarpinski]

SubString we still need until we improve the performance of String.

[ararslan]

Should RevString go as well?

[StefanKarpinski]

Yes, very likely.

[KristofferC]

Moved to JuliaStrings/LegacyStrings.jl#13