Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!texbell!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Nested Comments in C -- A recent experience
Message-ID: <8R52RUCny2@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 11 Mar 90 13:11:43 GMT
References: <236100027@prism> <1414@amethyst.math.arizona.edu> <1523@wacsvax.OZ> <4320@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <TC$#8^-@masalla.fulcrum.bt.co.uk> <1990Mar11.065712.9798@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 16

| Well, for once in a long while I've got a few cents to throw in.
| Just got done spending 3 hours looking for a "bug" which turned
| out not to be a "bug" at all; rather it went undetected as a
| programming error BECAUSE our C compiler doesn't handle nested
| comments (like most C compilers don't).

Alternatively, the problem was cause because the comment wasn't terminated
by the end of the line. I think a better fix than making comments nest would
be to add "// ... <eoln>" comments like C++ uses. Then in the next release
of the standard deprecate "/* ... */" comments.

This would also solve the old "a = *b/*c;" problem as well.

Nested comments are a fertile source of potential bugs. I'm not going to
rehash the old "comment seperator in string vs. commented-out code" argument.
Just sit down and think of the ramifications a little while...
-- 
 _--_|\  `-_-' Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>.
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