From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me
X-Spam-Level: *
X-Spam-Status: No, score=1.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FROM_ADDR_WS,
	INVALID_MSGID,TO_NO_BRKTS_FROM_MSSP autolearn=no autolearn_force=no
	version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,2cd0b8b65b7d84fb
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
From: Stuart Palin <\<\<omitted because I get too much spam already\>\>>
Subject: Re: Ada's Assembly Language Comments
Date: 1997/07/11
Message-ID: <5q4p43$pp4@gcsin3.geccs.gecm.com>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 256150076
References: <y8xisHAeZ5uzYwIm@clanchy.demon.co.uk> <33BBD7AC.286F@link.com>
 <rNu0QUAYEowzYwIF@clanchy.demon.co.uk>
Organization: GEC Marconi Avionics (Rochester)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Date: 1997-07-11T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


The thing I find irritating about Ada comments is the descision to 
construct the comment token out of a widely used mathematical symbol
rather than using some rarely used character or combining different
characters.  An accidental double key hit can lead to unintentional
commenting, and coupled with the long names encouraged in Ada it does
not seem unreasonable to suggest that an error of the form:

   long_name_a := long_name_b + long_name_c -- long_name_d - long_name_e
                  + long_name_f;

About the only way you can legislate against this in an automated syntax 
based style analysis program is to prohibit comments embedded in 
statements.

When Ada goes to the trouble of prohibiting double '_' (I believe for 
reasons of legibility) it seems doubly weird to use double '-' for 
comments.  Why not something like "!!", "%%", "##"?

--
Stuart Palin
Consultant Engineer
Flight Systems Division (Rochester)
GEC Marconi Avionics Ltd