[sc34wg3] Comments on comments

[Jaeho Lee]

Hello all,

	#( multiline comment )# or (# multiline comment #)
	# single-line comment

The above proposal using "#" is eye-pleasing to me too. However, I wonder
how well it fits with, for example,
<http://www.jtc1sc34.org/repository/0935.htm#dir-mergemap> URL with "#" in
it.

It may be correctly parsed by a smart parser, but I would like to see
correct coloring in my editor that has very simple rule for comments, not
distinguishing "# in URL" and "# for comments".

For you information, X-Window (I am still using it actively) configuration
files use "!" for comments.

---
 Jaeho Lee
 The University of Seoul

-----Original Message-----
From: sc34wg3-bounces at isotopicmaps.org
[mailto:sc34wg3-bounces at isotopicmaps.org] On Behalf Of Lars Marius Garshol
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 3:27 AM
To: Discussion of ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps
Subject: [sc34wg3] Comments on comments


I think we can summarize the debate so far as follows:
  - we need both single-line and multi-line comments,
  - there's a general preference for nestable multi-line comments.

Xuan is right that nestable comments mean CTM is no longer a regular
language, and as far as I can recall this is the only thing that goes
beyond that boundary. I don't think this really matters, though.

There's nothing like a consensus on *what* syntax to use though. We
have the following proposals:

N0935:
   (: multiline comment :)
   # single-line comment

Kyoto proposal:
   !( multiline comment )!
   ! single-line comment

My proposal:
   #( multiline comment )# or (# multiline comment #)
   # single-line comment
   *and* change item identifier cryptic delimiter from '#' to '!'

Personally, I much favour my own proposal. The single-line comment
syntax is very widely used, and has the added advantage of forcing us
to use something else for item identifiers (my proposal there is '!',
or even not supporting it, but I don't really care).

--Lars M.
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