Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!notecnirp!mg
From: mg@notecnirp.Princeton.EDU (Michael Golan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: language commenting constructs
Message-ID: <15727@princeton.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 17 Mar 89 16:36:35 GMT
References: <7555@killer.Dallas.TX.US> <10581@lanl.gov>
Sender: news@princeton.Princeton.EDU
Reply-To: mg@notecnirp.UUCP (Michael Golan)
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Princeton University
Lines: 39

Nested comments ? what that piece of code:

  /**
    printf("/* comment");
   **/

How do you overcome such problems using FSM, or any parser ? 

I think the "right" solution is to use the language smartly. if you don't
use 
/*************** COMMENTED OUT
stuff ...
**************** END ****/

(or #if etc), you are stupid. It is just as easy to write hard-to-read code
with other constructions of the language (ANY language!). So what ?

  x = 5 * (x == y<<1)? a:b ;

which is really 
  x= (5 * ( (x==y)<<1 ) )? a:b ;

(No flames pls if I got it wrong!)
At least for me, I had more problems with the above than with comments. 

Languge is just a tool. It is a complex tool and hence non-perfect one. You
must use it wisely. Language designers can not predict bad ways of using
the language they design. One fortune I have seen read like that:
"Nothing can be made foolproof because idiots are such ingenious:"

One more note about "C" comments:
  
   int x,*y ;
  
   x=x/*y ;   this is commented out */ ; 


Michael Golan
mg@princeton.edu