Date:         Tue, 14 Aug 2001 10:48:27 GMT
Reply-To:     Ace <b.rogers@VIRGIN.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Ace <b.rogers@VIRGIN.NET>
Subject:      Re: Suggestion: Language improvement

On 13 Aug 01 18:54:36 GMT, rjf2@CDC.GOV (Fehd, Ronald J.) wrote:

>> From: lpogoda [mailto:lpogoda@HOTMAIL.SPAMFREE.COM]
>> You have that "optional syntax" already.  There's nothing
>> stopping you from coding
>>
>> END; /*do a*/
>
>... except a certain disrespect for those who may have to come along some
>day and disable large blocks of code with the slash+asterisk --
>asterisk+slash debugging method.
>
>I am PC: politely civil
>in suggesting consideration of using the macro comment:
>end; %*macro comment;
>in that way.

Just to add my twopennorth to this thread - if one was going to
implement a specific 'END x' contruct in SAS, the simplest way would
surely be to mimic what's normal in PL1 (given its syntactical
similarity elsewhere) which is to use the optional label on any
statement as an ending. Sorry, that's not very clear, here's what I
mean.

fred: do i = 1 to 10 ;
        .
        .
      end fred ;

This will cause a compiliation error in PL1 if there are unclosed
DO/SELECT statements within the block and could probably be used in
SAS's pre-execution phase as well, to help identify problem areas.

--
Ace in Basel