Re^2: Why nested comments not allowed?

[Ted Ying]

In article <1990Feb20.165353.14212 at uncecs.edu> utoddl at uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) writes:
>
>You have quite precisely missed my point.  It was even in quotes.  Briefly:
>   1)  "comment out a section..."      Use comments.
>   2)  "compile if x {not} defined"    Use #if{n}def/#endif.
>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.
>
	OK, Todd.  I understand the difference that you are pointing out.
	The point you seem to be making is that comments should be
	restricted to non-code.  However, in that case, you are usually
	entering text or pseudo-code or something description or important
	to the section of code.  In that case, why would you ever want
	nested comments?  I think that nested comments are needed only if
	you would like to be able to "comment" out a section of code that
	might have comments in it otherwise.  If that is the case, then
	it is more appropriate to use #ifdef/#endif.  I'm not saying that
	nested comments are useless, just that they are not necessary
	especially when compared with the cost for generating a nested
	comment parser.

	Ted Ying			ted at welch.jhu.edu

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