[RBASE-L] - RE: Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:39:17 -0700

Thunderstorms likely today in the Asheville area.  Though even when it's raining, it's still a beautiful place.
 
As often as we can, my husband and I will drive the Blue Ridge Parkway, sometimes stopping for a trail walk.  Each and every time we look at each other and say "yep... we live here."  For this, I will always be grateful to Emmitt for posting that job opening a couple of years ago that got me to leave New England. 
 
As for comments:  I'm all for separate lines for comments too.
 
Dawn Hast
 
 
-------------- Original message from "Emmitt Dove" <[email protected]>: --------------

Hey, Steve.  Wouldn’t know about NC – I’m in CT.  Dawn can speak for NC, but here, well, 62 and overcast.

 

It makes sense that your example would fly – some might even say “soar” – as each comment follows the continuation character.  Once the parser hits the continuation, it is looking for the next line, and all it finds on the current line is a comment, so, on to the next line!

 

Speaking of JLS, somewhere in my archive I have a photo I took, contemporaneous with the book’s appearance, from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry.  As I recall, it is a couple of seagulls soaring along with the ferry, and the backdrop is the not-yet-completed World Trade Center and the southern tip of Manhattan.  Nice shot for an amateur.

 

You know you’re getting old when buildings you watched get built have disappeared.  There are others, too.

 

Emmitt Dove

Manager, Converting Applications Development

Evergreen Packaging, Inc.

[email protected]

(203) 214-5683 m

(203) 643-8022 o

(203) 643-8086 f

[email protected]

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Wills, Steve
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:29 AM
To: RBASE-L Mailing List
Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

 

Emmitt, how are you and how’s things in NC?

 

FWIW on this topic, have y’all ever tried something like this, in a command file:

 

--***************************************

--*** GULL_WING.TXT *********************

--***************************************

--*** 2009.06.04, JSW *******************

--***************************************

--*** Not part of the X Prize Contest ***

--***************************************

 

SELECT +                                           --*** get some data

   MyColumnA, +

   MyColumnb, +

   COUNT(MyColumnC) +                              --*** how many are there

FROM +

   MY_TABLE +                                      --*** silly table

WHERE MyColumnA = 'MINE' +                         --*** basic script line

  AND MyColumnB = 'MINE, TOO' +                    --*** advanced script line

  AND MyColumnC = 'I am a gull in Finding Nemo' +  --*** gull. aka rat of the sea

GROUP BY +                                         --*** AIA to J. L. Seagull

   MyColumnA, +

   MyColumnb

 

 

--*** The asterisks after the double-dashes are just attention-getters ***

 

RETURN

 

 

 

I know it works in v8:

 

R>run GULL_WING.TXT

 MyColumnA            MyColumnB            GullCT    

 -------------------- -------------------- ----------

 MINE                 MINE, TOO                     5

 

Here’s the table:

 

SET QUOTES=NULL

SET QUOTES='

SET DELIMIT=NULL

SET DELIMIT=','

SET LINEEND=NULL

SET LINEEND='^'

SET SEMI=NULL

SET SEMI=';'

SET PLUS=NULL

SET PLUS='+'

SET SINGLE=NULL

SET SINGLE='_'

SET MANY=NULL

SET MANY='%'

SET IDQUOTES=NULL

SET IDQUOTES='`'

SET CURRENCY '$' PREF 0 B

DISCONNECT

SET STATICDB OFF

SET ROWLOCKS ON

SET FASTLOCK OFF

CREATE SCHEMA  AUTHOR DCM_DLAM_a121 JSWILLS                            

CREATE TABLE `MY_TABLE`  +

(`MyColumnA` TEXT    (80) ,  +

 `MyColumnB` TEXT    (80) ,  +

 `MyColumnC` TEXT    (20) )

SET CASE OFF

SET AUTOSKIP OFF

SET REVERSE ON

SET BELL ON

SET NULL '-0- '

SET DATE YEAR 30

SET DATE CENTURY 19

SET DATE SEQUENCE MMDDYYYY

SET TIME SEQUENCE HHMMSS

SET TOLERANCE 0.

SET ZERO OFF

LOAD `MY_TABLE`

NONUM  

'MINE','MINE, TOO','I am a gull'

'MINE','MINE, TOO','I am a gull'

'MINE','MINE, TOO','I am a gull'

'MINE','MINE, TOO','I am a gull'

'MINE','MINE, TOO','I am a gull'

'Oh, would you just shut up! You''re rats with wings!',-0-,'I am a pelican'

'There, take it! You happy!',-0-,'I am a pelican'

END

SET DATE FORMAT 'MM/DD/YYYY'

SET TIME FORMAT 'HH:MM:SS.SSS'

SET DATE SEQUENCE MMDDYY

SET TIME SEQUENCE HHMMSS

 

Steve in Memphis

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Emmitt Dove
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:22am 05:22
To: RBASE-L Mailing List
Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

 

Alastair,

 

The point of my examples was to illustrate that you can put a comment most anywhere, IF that comment is created using the curly braces.  The double-dash, on the other hand, gets interpreted slightly differently.  It looks to me as if once R:BASE reads the double-dash it takes the rest of the line as the comment, whereas the curly braces encapsulate the comment.  So anything on a line following the double-dash is ignored, and therefore the EOL has been encountered.  But since the curly braces encapsulate the comment, it can in fact be embedded in the middle of a command.

 

Not that I recommend the practice, unless you want to drive another programmer crazy or something …

 

Personally, I like the comment-on-its-own-line approach.  The comment is clear, the code is clear.  But I’ve seen code that puts a double-dash comment following, say, an ENDIF to indicate which IF condition it is ending.  When the entire IF / ENDIF block cannot be displayed on the screen at once, this technique can be useful.

 

Emmitt Dove

Manager, Converting Applications Development

Evergreen Packaging, Inc.

[email protected]

(203) 214-5683 m

(203) 643-8022 o

(203) 643-8086 f

[email protected]

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alastair Burr
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 3:38 AM
To: RBASE-L Mailing List
Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

 

Thanks Buddy & Emmitt.

 

To make a comment really stand out and, in particular, to divide a command file into sections I used something like this:

 

-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- Pre-run set-up:

-- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

where the length of the first and third lines is 78 characters.

 

For SET VAR, for example, I put the comment on the same line and line them up to make a "column" on the right-hand edge.

 

Now, Emmitt, it must take a very special brain <g> to come up with your example so I copied and pasted both into a file. RBEdit nicely highlights what it sees as comments. I'm not sure that it would ever have occurred to me to put any comment in the middle of any command but, I suppose, that is, in effect, what I was asking about: does any command need a CR/LF - in another way.

 

Regards,

Alastair.

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Walker, Buddy

To: RBASE-L Mailing List

Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 12:25 AM

Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

 

Alastair

  I do the same as you keep comments on their own line.  I actually like the comment to be left justified. This way it is easier to pick up.

 

Buddy

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Emmitt Dove

Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:31 AM

Subject: [RBASE-L] - RE: Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

 

There appear to be some limits.  Try this code:

 

  IF {this is a test} .#PI <> 0 THEN

    WRITE -- really testy! 'It Works!'

  ENDIF

  RETURN

 

You’ll get a syntax error on the WRITE statement, which, of course, means that the IF worked.

 

Now try this:

 

  IF {this is a test} .#PI <> 0 THEN

    WRITE {really testy!} 'It Works!'

  ENDIF

  RETURN

 

Emmitt Dove

Manager, Converting Applications Development

Evergreen Packaging, Inc.

[email protected]

(203) 214-5683 m

(203) 643-8022 o

(203) 643-8086 f

[email protected]

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alastair Burr
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 6:47 PM
To: RBASE-L Mailing List
Subject: [RBASE-L] - Double Hyphen Comments: good practice

 

I've not come across any problem and the help makes no observations other than leaving at least one space if placed on the same line as a command...

 

but:

 

Are there any situations  where it is preferable not to place a comment on the same line as the command?

 

I only ask because, generally, I tend to avoid doing so with, for example IF, SWITCH, WHILE. Am I being over-cautious?

 

 

Regards,

Alastair

 

----------------------------

Alastair Burr

St. Albans, UK.

[email protected]

-----------------------------

 


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