Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!NSWC-OAS.ARPA!dsill
From: dsill@NSWC-OAS.ARPA (Dave Sill)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: Hiding comments in C mode
Message-ID: <8801251758.AA13325@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 25 Jan 88 17:47:57 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 87

In article <17561@topaz.rutgers.edu> Silver <gaynor@TOPAZ.RUTGERS.EDU> writes:
>Check out outline-mode, and see if it's capable of doing what you
>want.  I think that if you define outline-regexp carefully, you might
>just pull it off, and then you'll have a lot of functionality.

I don't lisp.  One of these days I'll convince myself to learn.

>To be honest, I wonder at the original request.  You want to hide the
>comments, and not the code?

Right.  For example:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#define TRUE 1		/* For function return values only */
#define FALSE 0		/* For fn returns or comparisons */

int
foo (x)
int x;			/* Input, number of widgets */
{
/* This function blah blah blah...
    :
   Returns TRUE if blah blah blah...
/*
    int n;
    register char *s;
    :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

would be displayed as:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#define TRUE 1		/*  */
#define FALSE 0		/*  */

int
foo (x)
int x;			/*  */
{
/*  */
    int n;
    register char *s;
    :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>Are they especially rude and offensive, or do I just not [see] the
>reasoning?

They're neither rude nor offensive, just in the way at the moment.

A fringe benefit would be that unclosed comments would be easier to
spot.  E.g.:

	:
	x=y/*z;
	*z=foo(y);		/* blah blah blah... */
	:

would display as:

	:
	x=y/*  */
	:

making the unintentional /* more obvious.  (Of course appropriate
white-space would have prevented the problem in the first place.)

There should be the following commands:

	c-hide-comment
	c-expose-comment
	c-hide-comments-region
	c-expose-comments-region
	c-hide-all-comments
	c-expose-all-comments

and maybe more.  Of course, writing out a C-mode buffer should be
automatically preceded by a call to c-expose-all-comments.  It would
be nice if attempts to modify a "/*  */" automatically called
c-expose-comment.

=========
The opinions expressed above are mine.

"There's no sensation to compare with this/
 Suspended animation, state of bliss."
					-- Pink Floyd