Re^2: Why nested comments not allowed?

Tony Sanders sanders at sanders.austin.ibm.com
Wed Feb 21 10:51:58 AEST 1990


In article <1990Feb20.165353.14212 at uncecs.edu> utoddl at uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) writes:
>See the difference?  In particular, I did not say that nested comments are
>the better way to suppress the compilation of a section of code. If it's a
>comment it isn't code!  The notion of conditionally compiling comments is
>a bit off the mark, IMHO.  Comments are never compiled--nothing conditional
>about that.  Lexed or parsed maybe, but not compiled.
>  It isn't a religious issue. It is a semantic issue--on two levels, no less.
>On the lower level, what I said is not what you thought I meant.  On the
>higher level, #ifdef/#endif and nested comments are not the same although
>the end result may be the same.
It is semanticly different but that doesn't exclude it from being a
religious issue.  The simple fact is I don't have to use /**/ comments
at all and I can still comment my code.  It's a preference and
therefore a religious issue, /**/'s don't nest, while #if's do.
Choose which one you want for what you are doing.

If the end result is EXACTLY the same you are in the realm of religion.
It's the issues that don't have the same result that are the tuffies.

This will give all those stupid people in alt.religion.computers something
new to fight about (see you there :-).

-- sanders                                     JUST SAY kNOw TO DRUGS
Reply-To:  cs.utexas.edu!ibmaus!auschs!sanders.austin.ibm.com!sanders
"she was an innocent bystander, it's a democracy" -- Jim Morrison



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