Something to use '$' for

[David Herron, NPR Lover]

I know!   We are wanting something that says "comment till end of line"
but all the suggestions so far go down in flames because that character
is already in use.  Is '$' really not used?  Could '$$' be used
to signal this type of comment?  Does anybody really care?

At any rate.  (---Pull out random piece of C code---)  Here is a
C routine I wrote a long time ago.  It used "regular" type comments
of course.  I just redid the comments for illustration purposes.

------------------>Start C (with funny comments) routine<----------------
$$ putvc.c -- Contains ctovc routine.  Generates readable control characters.
$$
$$ char *ctovc(c) char c;
$$ Pass a character in c.  The routine returns a string representing the
$$ character.  If the character is a non-printing character, it generates
$$ the backslash-mnemonic equivalent, otherwise it returns the character.
$$

char bf[6];		$$ to put \nnn in

char *ctovc(c)
char c;
{

    switch(c)
    {
	case '\n': return("\\n");	$$ newline 
	case '\t': return("\\t");	$$ tab
	case '\b': return("\\b");	$$ backspace
	case '\r': return("\\r");	$$ return
	case '\f': return("\\f");	$$ formfeed
	case '\\': return("\\\\");	$$ backslash
	case '\'': return("\'");	$$ single-quote
	default:
	    if(c>=' ' && c<0200)
		sprintf(bf,"%c",c);
	    else
		sprintf(bf,"\\%o",(int)c);
	    return(bf);
    }
}
------------------------>End C Routine<----------------------------

# could be used if people want to let *non-standard* C compilers live.  

Actually, the '$' is needed in some environments......  The purpose of C
is to support system programmers.  System programmers have to interface
to the existing system.  If the existing system uses symbols containing
the '$' character then C needs to support them in that environment or
the system programmer wont be able to call the standard system calls
in the way s/he is accustomed to doing.

Then there are systems where # is useful.  (.....sigh....where does it stop)
(One example is the dec-10.  Macro-10 uses # at the end of certain
symbols to tell the assembler that it needs to allocate space for it,
and ## means that the symbol is external.  Then the IBM PL/1-F compiler
I used a few years ago accepted # as part of a symbol name, so assumably
the linker takes # in a symbol.)  (Are there any systems where @ 
couldn't be used?)  (How about '`'?  (grave character)).

I'm going to stop before y'all get mad about all this rambling.......
-----------------------------------------
David Herron;  ARPA-> "ukma!david"@ANL-MCS   (Note the quote marks.)
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(The usual warning about having no opinions).             "I read banned books."