* Johan Vromans (JVromans@squirrel.nl) [24 Aug 2000 06:39]: > iain truskett <ict@eh.org> writes: > > It's not *that* slow. Just means the parser is looking for /* as > > well as */ ... > And "/*" and ""/*" and '/*' and qw(*/) and #*/ and \#*/ and m/.*/ ... Of course. But see below. > With MLC, you need to _parse_ the comments. What happens if you find a > unterminated quoted string in a commented out section? Guess what > happens when you have the following comment in a java program: > /* File: C:\user\jv\demo.java */ > t.java:1: Invalid escape character. > /* File: C:\user\jv\demo.java */ In that situation, I would say that the java compiler isn't really doing what it should be doing. i.e. That looks like a bug, not a feature. gcc does no such thing with its comments. > With SLC, discarding a line if it starts with a # (after optional > whitespace) is straightforward, fail safe, and fast. Almost. You can have # in other places on the line. It doesn't have to be at the start (with or without whitespace). i.e. print # this is a print statement $foobar # this is still the print statement , # a comma! /moo#/ # here's the comment ,$#array,# another one. q#moo# # ooh! ; # ok. i'm done. You still have to parse. cheers, -- iain truskett, aka Koschei. <http://eh.org/~koschei/> Q: How do I find the largest element in an array? A: Write a foreach elements one at a time, and stop when you get to the largest one. -- perliaq.