Submitter's name: Per Bothner
Submitter's email address: per_at_bothner.com
Type of issue: Simplification
Priority: Minor
R6RS component: Formal syntax
Version of the report: 5.91
One-sentence summary of the issue: #;<datum> comments useless
Having 3 different comment syntaxes (four, if you count #!)
is overkill. #;<datum> adds no expressive power, and is
dangerous, and should be removed.
#;<datum> is always equivalent to #|<datum>|#. It sames two
characters, at the cost of making it harder to see where the
comment ends. The expressed rationale is to make it easy to comment
out sections of code - but it only makes sense to use it during
development/debugging. In "production" code or anything else supposed
to be maintainable you clearly should use #|...|# instead since it
is much safer and clearer exactly what is commented out.
And during development/debugging you can use an editor/IDE which
can just as easily enclude code in #|...|# comments.
Furthermore, #|<datum>|# is strictly more powerful, since it can
comment out not just a single <datum> but as many as you want.
#; is the sort of "save two characters" "feature" which
is not appropriate in a Scheme standard.
--
--Per Bothner
per_at_bothner.com http://per.bothner.com/
Received on Tue Sep 19 2006 - 02:29:43 UTC