Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!zen!frank
From: frank@zen.co.uk (Frank Wales)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Base comments (was Re: This one bit me today)
Message-ID: <2003@zen.co.uk>
Date: 29 Oct 89 15:56:20 GMT
References: <2651@hub.UUCP> <1651@atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu> <1989Oct23.161744.29153@utzoo.uucp> <509@sagpd1.UUCP>
Reply-To: frank@zen.co.uk (Frank Wales)
Organization: Zengrange Limited, Leeds, England
Lines: 19

In article <509@sagpd1.UUCP> jharkins@sagpd1.UUCP (Jim Harkins) writes:
>In article <1989Oct23.161744.29153@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>>Nobody has ever quite gotten around to using `@' in C.
>
>I know, we'll use @ for nested comments!  :-)

I suggest using @ to mean "that special form of NULL which can be used
legally where the real thing cannot".  Dereferencing @ yields one of @,
NULL or void, as appropriate.

We can call it 'bottom', as in "disappearing up one's @."

And to introduce some wanton ambiguity into the language, /@ (slash-bottom)
can introduce a nestable comment, *@ (star-bottom) can introduce Tahnee
Welch, and <@ (from-the-bottom) can cause a jump to the local FORTRAN
compiler for the remainder of the program.
--
Frank Wales, Systems Manager,        [frank@zen.co.uk<->mcvax!zen.co.uk!frank]
Zengrange Ltd., Greenfield Rd., Leeds, ENGLAND, LS9 8DB. (+44) 532 489048 x217