Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!ukma!mailrus!ames!uhccux!munnari.oz.au!cs.mu.oz.au!ok
From: ok@cs.mu.oz.au (Richard O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Need help using /usr/lib/cpp for generic text
Message-ID: <2164@munnari.oz.au>
Date: 22 Sep 89 10:35:43 GMT
References: <838@pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu> <3323@solo10.cs.vu.nl>
Sender: news@cs.mu.oz.au
Lines: 25

In article <3323@solo10.cs.vu.nl>, maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) writes:
> One limitation: you shouldn't use `/*' and `*/' to comment out text; instead
> use:
> 	#if 0
> 	...
> 	#endif 0

This advice was correct in the specific context (using cpp for generic text
on a particular operating system).  However, it is not correct for C.
        #endif 0
(a)            ^ this token is not legal in dpANS C; V.3 tends not to like it
(b) You should not use this technique to comment out text in a C program; new
C compilers are allowed to complain about mismatched quotes when they see
"don't" and other such text, and some _do_.

    You're going to laugh, but how about using the Bourne shell as a
condition processing facility?  E.g.
	if [ ... ] ; then
	    cat <<'EndOfPart'
	any old text -- almost
	EndOfPart
	else
	    # equivalent of 'include'
	    cat foo.inc
	fi