Re: Syntax of Comments (was: language design tradeoffs)

crowl@jade.cs.orst.edu (Lawrence Crowl) writes:


      I dislike the `ifdef' approach to commenting out code for one very simple
      reason --- I can't tell by looking at a piece of code that it is commented
      out. I have to look up the next for an `ifdef'. When every commented
      line is marked clearly as being commented, then I can concentrate more
      locally.


Try "hideif.el".


      The moral is, I think, that language designers can and should assume a
      reasonable editing environment. Just as you wouldn't send a carpenter out
      to do a job without a hammer, you shouldn't send a programmer out to do a
      job without a regular-expression-based editor.


I agree, but I would go even a step further. I think at this point, it is
getting foolish to try to design languages entirely based on the
vi/make/run approach to development. The languages of the future should
not cater to an outmoded view of linear text, files, and separate
compilation.


Instead, they should be designed with sophisticated front-ends in mind
that might allow me to take different (hierarchical) views of program
structure, play around with different versions of arbitrary pieces of my
source code (not just version control at the file level), inline expand
code to see what actually is happening, and generally make programming
more of a dialog between the machine and the programmer (computer: "You
are still missing a function 'minimize_quotient'; I have 15 minimization
routines/templates, would you like to use one of them?").


Of course, as I understand it, that is pretty much what CASE is trying to
achieve, but I believe that so far, it has mainly been an "add-on" to
existing languages, and it definitely hasn't made it to _my_ desk yet.


Thomas.
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