Don't double-escape in strings in the VM Service, and don't use \u0000 to determine the string lengt

runtime/bin/vmservice/observatory/lib/src/elements/instance_ref.html

 <link rel="import" href="../../../../packages/polymer/polymer.html">
 <link rel="import" href="curly_block.html">
 <link rel="import" href="observatory_element.html">
 <link rel="import" href="service_ref.html">
 
 <polymer-element name="instance-ref" extends="service-ref">
   <template>
     <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/shared.css">
     <style>
       .errorBox {
         background-color: #f5f5f5;
         border: 1px solid #ccc;
         padding: 10px;
         font-family: consolas, courier, monospace;
         font-size: 1em;
         line-height: 1.2em;
         white-space: pre;
       }
     </style>
     <span>
       <template if="{{ ref.isSentinel }}">
         <div title="{{ hoverText }}">{{ ref.valueAsString }}</div>
       </template>
 
-      <template if="{{ ref.isString || ref.isBool || ref.isInt || ref.isDouble || ref.isNull }}">
+      <template if="{{ ref.isBool || ref.isInt || ref.isDouble || ref.isNull }}">
         <a on-click="{{ goto }}" _href="{{ url }}">{{ ref.valueAsString }}</a>
       </template>
 
+      <template if="{{ ref.isString }}">
+        <a on-click="{{ goto }}" _href="{{ url }}">{{ asStringLiteral(ref.valueAsString, ref.valueAsStringIsTruncated) }}</a>

[turnidge, 2014/09/09 16:12:31]

I suppose we could actually make the "..." be a link which fetches the
non-truncated string and re-displays it inline, much like the curly-block
expansion.

+      </template>
+
       <template if="{{ ref.isType }}">
         <a on-click="{{ goto }}" _href="{{ url }}">{{ ref.name }}</a>
       </template>
 
       <template if="{{ ref.isClosure }}">
         <a on-click="{{ goto }}" _href="{{ url }}">
           <!-- TODO(turnidge): Switch this to fully-qualified function -->
           {{ ref.closureFunc.name }}
         </a>
       </template>
@@ skipping 63 matching lines @@
               </div>
             </div>
           </div>
         </curly-block>
       </template>
     </span>
   </template>
 </polymer-element>
 
 <script type="application/dart" src="instance_ref.dart"></script>