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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!drutx!mtuxo!pegasus!avi
From: avi@pegasus.UUCP (Avi E. Gross)
Newsgroups: net.unix
Subject: Re: # comment character
Message-ID: <2401@pegasus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Jun-85 19:20:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: pegasus.2401
Posted: Wed Jun 26 19:20:53 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Jun-85 06:41:00 EDT
References: <291@ucdavis.UUCP>
Reply-To: avi@pegasus.UUCP (60545451-Avi E. Gross;LZ 3C-314;6241)
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 23

In article <291@ucdavis.UUCP> ccrrick@ucdavis.UUCP (Rick Heli) writes:
>Can anyone tell me why the # character is a comment in INTERACTIVE
>mode in the shell?  I mean, who goes around making comments that
>will never be seen again while running the shell in interactive
>mode?

Why should it mean anything else in interactive mode? I often
create complicated commands I would like to execute later and put a '#'
at the beginning. Then, when I am ready to run it (often after another
process has completed running in the background or another window), I use
the nifty Korn shell commands to return to that line, strip the '#' and
actually run it.

Similarly, I sometimes enter an in-line function, with some lines commented
out and run it. After checkking to see that it does the right things, I edit
it and remove the '#'s.

A better question is why the '#' character was used as a comment character
when the typical UNIX*TM Operating System came with '#' as the default
character-delete character?
-- 
-=> Avi E. Gross @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6241
 suggested paths: [ihnp4, allegra, cbosg, ahuta, ...]!pegasus!avi