Explain why black avoids using \ for code organization

[zsol]

The README should have a clear, concise explanation for why black avoids using \.

Here's a lengthy reasoning 👀

[sudheer-g]

Hey! I've read @ambv 's explanation on this. Is it okay if I give this a shot? Thanks.

[ambv]

Of course, go for it!

[ambv]

Wording to use:

Backslashes are one of the two places in the Python grammar that break significant indentation. The other one is multiline strings. You never need backslashes, they are used to force the grammar to accept breaks that would otherwise be parse errors. That makes them confusing to look at and brittle to modify. This is why Black always gets rid of them.

If you're reaching for backslashes, that's a clear signal that you can do better if you slightly refactor your code. I hope some of the examples above show you that there are many ways in which you can do it.

However, there will be one exception: with statements with multiple context managers: #664