From: Joel Wilsson <siigron@...>
Date: 2001-07-05T23:04:22+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:17298] Re: /* */ comments

Hi everyone,
           Since everyone seem to think multiline comments
are so extremely crucial for the language, I might as well
say what -I- think about it.
My solution is very simple. Allow "anonymous" here docum-
ents, and add a function returning the previous return
value.

Example:

C<< This is the multiline comment describing what the
function does. It is anonymous since it ends with >>
# and not a special word.

def foo
	gets  # read a string from stdin
	C<< This should return the previous value,
		not the value of this here-document >>
end

Unless I'm missing something, this should be extremely
easy to implement, and it fits nicely with the syntax
Ruby already has (with here-documents). The only new
syntax here is >>, isn't it?

I don't remember, but doesn't Ruby already save the
return value of the last function?

Anyway, this wouldn't work if you want to comment out
code using <<, like someArray<<someElement.
One solution would be to use "-<<" and "->>" to start
and end (all) here-documents, something I personally
think should have been done before.
As it is now,
someArray<< <<EOF document
EOF
is valid, but utterly confusing. Why does "<<"
get special treatment like that? When does it start
a here-document and when does it not? OK, most of
us probably know how here-documents work, but their
syntax seem a bit inconsistent, with the seemingly
special treatment << gets (maybe it doesn't get 
special treatment at all, and in that case you may
hit me in the head with a virtual brick).
I think it's better to have a special operator for
here-documents which always start here-documents.
-<< is one idea, I'm sure many of you have better
propositions.

... suddenly I'm not so sure whether or not this
is such a good idea, but I don't know why.
Irritating.
Sorry for ranting...

PS. I'm not saying you should rip out support for
    the here-documents currently used, but perhaps
    you could mark it as "deprecated" if you decide
    to do something like this?

Regards,
        a somewhat confused Joel Wilsson.