Minor: support for nested comments

[Skye]

In a language I frequently use, simple brackets ( ) are used for comments, and are nestable. At the present time, UE doesn't support nested comments, so it's not a huge issue, just a minor cosmetic one. A word in the language definition line would be enough to enable it (off by default) for that particular language.

[danne]

Ah yes, nested comments. Haven't seen anything about it in ages. I think I first asked for support for it about five years ago, so I guess we can conclude it ain't exactly a high priority thing.

This was the last I heard ^^

Hello Danne,

Thank you for your message. This may be considered for a future release.

Thanks, Troy

At 11:21 AM 04/12/2001 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi!
>
>This about nested comments in syntax highlighting would be very nice. A
>shame this is not configurable. I know we are quite a bunch who would like
>this option, even tho many may not have raised their voices about it. I
>mailed you about this a long while ago (over a year ago I think). I would
>really like it if you would consider it again
>
>Thanks,
>Danne
>
>http://www.idmcomp.com/discus/messages/11/19.html (some comments about it)

[dlokken]

Wow, guess I should have come here first.
I also just sent a request for Nested Comment Support.
I've been looking for a solution for 3 years.

[dlokken]

I requested a fix for the nested comments:
I am posting part of the reply here. Sounds like if enough people ask
for it they may think about implementing it. I know there are work-arounds....but

Hello Dennis,

Thanks for your response and the information. We do consider each
request as to how it may benefit our users as a whole. If there is
enough of a user base which would benefit from this, we would look
into adding support for this. I have added your request to our list.

Thanks, Andy



Wednesday, February 9, 2005, 4:50:42 PM, you wrote:


djc> Hello,
djc> Actually I forgot include that this was not for C++. It is
djc> for a unique programming language. I have it set up as L10 in the
djc> wordfile. The name is Genrad.
djc> I do see there is other interest in this feature according to the Forums.


djc> Hello Dennis,

djc> Thanks for your response and the file. I do recall this message now.
djc> I believe you are referring to (in this case) the c/c++ language. I
djc> did test his here, and I do see what you are referring to. There is
djc> not a way to nest block comments. The block comment will turn off
djc> immediately when it finds the next instance of the block comment off
djc> delimiter regardless of another occurrence of a block comment on
djc> delimiter.

djc> This is currently not planned for a future release. Our
djc> implementation of this was based on the fact that Microsoft's Visual
djc> Studio did not support this either.

djc> Thanks, Andy



djc> Wednesday, February 9, 2005, 2:36:30 PM, you wrote:

[danne]

Well, I've sort of given up hope on ever seeing it. And I would never use the m$ Visual editor anyways (so I dunno how it handles nested comments) ^^

My current solution (since a few years back) is a macro which comments like this:

Code: Select all

/****
**|def var ipcForetag    as char    no-undo.
**|def var ipdDatum      as date    no-undo. /* datum für landning på ankomstflygplats */
**|def var ipcFlygBolag  as char    no-undo.
**|def var ipiFlygnr     as int     no-undo.
**|def var iplTyp        as log     no-undo. /* arrlist/deplist */
**|def var ipcArrAirport as char    no-undo.
***/

[Vlotsk]

I don't think that wrong highlighting of nested comments is minor problem. It's VERY BIG problem when you work on big complex project with lots of comments. I do it everyday and i spent lot of my time for finding borders of the commented code. Guys, you have to fix this problem, please!

[GarryK]

I have to agree - this is more than a minor issue. Comment delimiters are regularly used to "comment-out" blocks of code for a variety of reason. Lack of support for nested comments can make it very easy to miss what is or isnt being compiled, and can be worse than no syntax highlighting at all.
Its not just C++ either - developing in many other languages, like Progress, suffers because of the lack of this support.
Honestly, how hard can it be? _Please_ add nested comment support. I've been using UE for a few years now, long enough to have to pay if I want to upgrade past 10.10 - a fix for this issue would be enough for me to pay for that upgrade. Pretty please? With chocolate sauce?

[PaoloFCantoni]

Hi,

I also agree it would be REALLY USEFUL to have...

However, there are a couple of related issues to think about. In UE, when you say Comment Add or Comment Remove - it uses the line comment string to do this. Which is fine if that's what you want. However, from the tenor of this thread, we are discussing the use of the Block Comment.

It may be that we might need UE to add:
Line Comment Add/Remove and
Bock Comment Add/Remove.

Nesting comment support would only apply to Block Comment Remove. Shouldn't it?

Paolo

[aclough]

Well, its now October 2007 and it seems this issue has continued to be ignored (unless I have missed something, he writes hopefully?) for nearly seven years!
Perhaps Paolo scared the developers off with his expansion of the thread request - just the simple ability to deal with nested block comments in the syntax highlighting would be great, we dont really need the ability to add/remove them modified at all.
Has anyone found a useful workaround that doesnt involve modifying every line?

[Mofi]

Nested block comments are supported since UE v13.00. Read the help about syntax highlighting or search in the forum how to enable the support for nested comments.

Hint: Search for word NestBlockComments