JavaTokenParsers.stringLiteral

Hi folks

I've noticed come across some unexpected behavior with
JavaTokenParsers.stringLiteral and was hoping someone on this list
might be able to help.

I've implemented a JSON parser per the tutorial in "Programming in
Scala", but noticed that JSON strings are being parsed into Scala
Strings with leading and trailing quotes (").

To be more precise:

scala> import scala.util.parsing.combinator._
import scala.util.parsing.combinator._

scala> class S extends JavaTokenParsers
defined class S

scala> val p = new S
p: S = S@4072e154

scala> p.parseAll(p.stringLiteral, """ "one" """).get
res0: String = "one"

scala> p.parseAll(p.stringLiteral, """ "one" """).get.charAt(0)
res1: Char = "

scala> p.parseAll(p.stringLiteral, """ "one" """).get == "one"
res2: Boolean = false

scala> p.parseAll(p.stringLiteral, """ "one" """).get == "\"one\""
res3: Boolean = true

This behavior seems counter to the behavior suggested in PiS, and as a
result seems like a bug. Is it? If not, is anyone familiar with the
motivation for the current behavior?

As is, I need to implement an additional helper method like:

def string: Parser[String] =
stringLiteral ^^ (s => new RichString(s.slice(1, s.length() - 1)))

(though this is probably less elegant than it could be)

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Travis Vachon