Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!think!ames!oliveb!pyramid!markhall From: markhall@pyramid.pyramid.com (Mark Hall) Newsgroups: comp.std.c Subject: Comments and pragma lines Summary: Can you flag the error? Message-ID: <48957@pyramid.pyramid.com> Date: 29 Nov 88 00:31:18 GMT Reply-To: markhall@pyramid.UUCP (Mark Hall) Distribution: na Organization: Pyramid Technology Corp., Mountain View, CA Lines: 37 Consider the following source: #pragma rotate lid counterclockwise /* store pointers in * Best Foods * Mayonaise Jars. */ Is it legal to start the comment on the pragma line? From what I read* in the standard, it is illegal. Fine. For such cases, I'd like to see the message: error:.c: line 1, cannot open comment on #pragma line But if the two characters `/*' can occur legally in a #pragma line, then I don't see how the compiler can flag the error. For example, *if* the following is legal: #pragma ascii sunbakedchar &^%$/*()! then of course the compiler can't know in general that ``/*'' in the pragma line is the ``open comment'' token. The consequence of this is that, for the original source above, the compiler will give some other complaint like: error: .c: line 2, lhs of `*' operator must be l-value. error: .c: line 2, undeclared id `Best' or worse, it could give some really dreadful message way down in the source listing that was actually due to the /* in the #pragma. (you know how hard it is to find those smoking open-comment/close-comment mismatch errors). So, the question is: can /* occur legally on the #pragma line? _______________________ *did I say `read'? I meant, ``someone walked by my office with the standard in hand and I saw an open page''.