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From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Re: comment style
Message-ID: <29036@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 9 Jan 91 06:24:38 GMT
References: <613@caslon.cs.arizona.edu> <1050:Jan701:40:4791@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1991Jan9.003543.3087@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 32

>In article <17968:Jan804:38:1591@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
 brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein) writes:
>>... is a widely accepted principle of
>>visual design: parallel lines are striking. Read Tufte's books.

In article <1991Jan9.003543.3087@watmath.waterloo.edu>
datangua@watmath.waterloo.edu (David Tanguay) writes:
>Then Tufte is wrong, at least in this instance :-) One of the problems I
>have found with C++ code is that I don't see the comments (caveat: I've not
>looked at a lot of C++ code). The // looks like a letter to me (it's almost
>an italic N).

Actually, no smiley face is needed.  Although the brain has special
`hardware' for recognizing lines (and, in particular, horizontal and
vertical lines; diagonals seem to take longer---one can speculate about
animals hidden in tall grasses here), in the sequence

	some stuff with a // comment

the lines are not really large enough to be picked out.  Extending them
to two screen positions will usually suffice:

	some stuff with a // strange and
	somewhat special // comment

provided that these line up properly on your screen (a few seconds of
arc can make a big difference here).

The human visual system is kind of weird.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris