From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id GAA05944; Sun, 14 Sep 2003 06:47:46 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id GAA08901 for ; Sun, 14 Sep 2003 06:47:45 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from speakeasy.org (dsl081-017-141.sea1.dsl.speakeasy.net [64.81.17.141]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id h8E4lhT13795 for ; Sun, 14 Sep 2003 06:47:44 +0200 (MET DST) Received: (from shawnw@localhost) by speakeasy.org (8.10.1/8.10.1) id h8E4nuw14570 for caml-list@inria.fr; Sat, 13 Sep 2003 21:49:56 -0700 Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 21:49:55 -0700 From: Shawn Wagner To: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] O'Caml looks at the contents of comments?! Message-ID: <20030914044955.GA18098@speakeasy.org> Mail-Followup-To: caml-list@inria.fr References: <20030913104552.GA21760@farrand.net> <1063513765.23073.46.camel@pelican> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1063513765.23073.46.camel@pelican> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-Loop: caml-list@inria.fr X-Spam: no; 0.00; shawnw:01 caml-list:01 farrand:01 camlp:01 commenting:01 ignores:01 enforced:01 c's:01 terminator:01 shawnw:01 compiler:01 ocaml:01 speakeasy:01 speakeasy:01 sci:01 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk On Sun, Sep 14, 2003 at 02:29:25PM +1000, skaller wrote: > On Sat, 2003-09-13 at 20:45, Jim Farrand wrote: > > I've spent a long time puzzling over a "string not terminated" error > > which was being reported inside a class I'm writing. Camlp4r reported > > the error just as being somewhere in the class (i.e. Line 267 character > > 4 - 1076) which gave me quite a bit of code to look over. I spent a > > long while staring at the code quite puzzled because I couldn't see an > > unterminated string anywhere. > > > > Eventually I started commenting out bits of code, and I was even more > > confused when I'd commented out the entire class and STILL got the > > error. > > > > Eventually I traced the error to an unterminated string inside a > > comment. This strikes me as slightly odd behaviour - one of the first > > things comp sci students are taught about comments is that the compiler > > ignores them. As this has been my experience for many years it took me > > a long time to even consider that I could have a syntax error inside a > > comment. > > > > So why is this restriction enforced? > > > > The reason is: Ocaml comments are designed to be able to > comment out code. > > If you consider the code: > > " (* " ^ x > > and comment out the first part like this: > > (* " (* " ^ *) x > > it wouldn't work unless the (* in the string was detected > as being inside a string and ignored. The contents of > comments are not ignored, in the sense that every lexer > even C's, has to find the comment terminator. > I keep getting hit with this too. The problem in my case? Single quotes used as apostrophes in the documentation in comments. Annoying, even if you know why it's happening. -- Shawn Wagner shawnw@speakeasy.org ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners