Alpheus Madsen: > As a general rule, I expect "multi-line" comments to be comments that just > disappear when compiled.
Agree. > Oh, and this will likely make the implementation of comments more > complicated, but would it be possible to make these comments "nested"? It > has always bugged me, where multi-line comments are allowed, that you can't > comment out blocks with multi-line comments in them. For example: I think comments should nest iff they nest in that language *without* our readers. That is, if #|...|# nests in the underlying language, then it should in our reader. If it doesn't, it shouldn't. Remember, we're trying to maximize backwards compatibility, so we shouldn't change the semantics of stuff we don't *have* to. That said, Scheme R6RS defines #|...|# as a "nested comment" and *REQUIRES* that they nest. R5RS doesn't have #|...|# built-in, but SRFI-30 does the same thing for R5RS (for those R5RS Schemes that support it). Similarly, Scheme R6RS defines "#; atmosphere* datum" as a comment, potentially multi-line, making it easy to comment out any particular datum... and it nests too. R5RS doesn't have "#;" built-in, but SRFI-62 defines it for R5RS. I haven't tested to see if our implementation lives up to that :-). > ... In attempting to comment out the function, I fail, because the block only > goes to the first */ rather than the second. > If a block has several such sub-blocks, it becomes a great pain to go back > and forth, "breaking" and then "fixing" the blocks, if you have reason to go > back and forth between commenting and uncommenting the outer comment. > To me, this has *always* been broken. I'd like to see it fixed! :-) That's a legitimate concern, but R6RS Scheme, and R5RS Scheme with those SRFIs, solves this in two ways (already): 1. First, it has #|...|#, which nests. 2. It supports #; <interlexeme space> datum... which nests. --- David A. Wheeler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Readable-discuss mailing list Readable-discuss@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/readable-discuss
