Date:         Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:57:00 -0400
Reply-To:     "Fehd, Ronald J. (CDC/OCOO/ITSO)" <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Fehd, Ronald J. (CDC/OCOO/ITSO)" <rjf2@CDC.GOV>
Subject:      FW: Thoughts on nested comments?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

\begin{OpEd}
<insert tongue firmly in cheek>

Truly: Badness Happening!

<one of Donald Knuth's favorite tag-lines  in his TeX typeseting system;
used in place of Warning>

Your commentary and description of how you want to use this shows an
under-developed method of writing
* modules
* routines
  and
* subroutines

One Big Program?!

go for small bytes when programming.
Small programs -- routines and subroutines -- are easier to
* develop
* debug
* test:
  * unit test
  * integration test

\end{OpEd}

Ron Fehd the testing maven

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sas-l@listserv.uga.edu [mailto:owner-sas-
> l@listserv.uga.edu] On Behalf Of Keintz, H. Mark
> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 1:31 PM
> To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Thoughts on nested comments?
>
> Folks:
>
> This is an informal request to SAS-L for thoughts on a nested comment
> mechanism.  I.e. if the next sasware ballot included an item like
> "introduce nested comments", how might the feature look in practice?
>
>
> JUSTIFICATION:
>
> AFAIK, SAS does not support nested comments.  In particular a single
> "*/" cancels the effect of any number of preceding unpaired "/*"
> delimiters.
>
> I for one would appreciate the ability to nest comments.  When
> developing, say, a 7-step program I may have steps 3 and 5 already
> vetted and each therefore commented out via "/* ... */".  If, after
> further testing, I want to comment out steps 2 through 6, I can't
> simply insert delimiters before step 2 and after step 6.
>
>
> PROPOSAL:
>
> Add //* and *// as nested comment delimiters, such that:
>
>    //*   Increases the comment level by 1
>    *//   Decreases the comment level by 1
>
>
> EXAMPLE: using the 7-step program mentioned above, I start out with
> steps 3 and 5 commented with the proposed tokens.
>
>    ... step 1 SAS code ...
>    ... step 2 SAS code ...
>      //*
>    ... step 3 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 1)
>      *//
>    ... step 4 SAS code ...
>      //*
>    ... step 5 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 1)
>      *//
>    ... step 6 SAS code ...
>    ... step 7 SAS code ...
>
> Subsequently I want to comment steps 2 through 6.  I would add //*
> before step 2 and *// after step 6:
>
>    ... step 1 SAS code ...
>    //*
>    ... step 2 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 1)
>      //*
>    ... step 3 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 2)
>      *//
>    ... step 4 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 1)
>      //*
>    ... step 5 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 2)
>     *//
>    ... step 6 SAS code ... treated as a comment (level 1)
>   *//
>    ... step 7 SAS code ...
>
> CONSIDERATIONS:
>   1. This feature should not be allowed to break the behavior of /*
and
> */.   In particular all comment levels established by //* would be
> subordinate to the effect of */, which would terminate all levels.
>
>   2. I know of no usage of the token "//*" in current SAS programs,
and
> an unpaired "*//" would be treated the same as an unpaired "*/".   So
> IMO these particular tokens are highly unlikely to be present in
> current programs. I.e. they shouldn't break any current code.
>
>
>
> (Ahem) Comments?
>
>
> regards,
> Mark