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

de19@umail.umd.edu (Dana S Emery) writes:
> I'm surprised no one has suggested coloration or styleing to reflect
> semantics.
>
> It would be simple enough for a pretty printer to use
> font/italics/color/background shadeing for comments, and that would
> delineate commented out code in an emphatic way. Of course, one has to
> allow the programmer to spec the styling.


The code browsing and editing environment I use on the Mac, "Object
Master" does just that. (It does a lot more besides, but this isn't the
time to go into it all... I'll just say that it provides a smalltalk-like
browser and controls Apple's MPW compilers via AppleEvents)


It understands the syntax of Object Pascal, C++ and (Object) Modula-2 and
lets the user assign a different colour and style to each syntatic
element. You can create some extremely ugly things, and I don't find the
choice of syntatic elements entirely ideal (at least in C++ -- it seems to
be better in Pascal), but it do find that I like to make keywords bolded
and a medium gray (for about the same overall optical impact, but a
different "feel") and comments red.
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Bruce.Hoult@bbs.actrix.gen.nz Twisted pair: +64 4 477 2116
BIX: brucehoult Last Resort: PO Box 4145 Wellington, NZ
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