From: Roger Pack <rogerdpack@...>
Date: 2009-07-13T21:41:16+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:24311] [RCR] allow for cleaner multi-line comments

Forgive the radicalness of this idea.

Background: currently if one wants to temporarily comment out more
than one ruby code line [and doesn't have an editor to do it for them,
and doesn't want to put the whole thing into a string].

The only possible ways are:

 def go a, b
  #some code
  # ...
  #more code
 end

or

 def go a, b
=begin
  some code
   ...
  more code
=end
 end

The first example is somewhat time consuming for large blocks (esp.
for thos of us with poor editors like myself).  The second example [to
me] is somewhat harsh on the eyes because it interrupts the code flow.

Suggestion: allow for multi-line comments more easily.

one option would be:
allow for /* */ blocks

another would be
allow =begin and =end to have preceding whitespace allowable.

Our example becomes:
 def go a, b
  =begin
  some code
   ...
  more code
  =end
 end

Either would help out at least this ruby user (though my personal
preference would be for the latter--probably would require tweaking
the parser less].
I'd be happy to attempt a patch for either way.
Thoughts?
r