Unix text editor issues (was: st: mulitple comments using // and #d;)

["Michael S. Hanson" <mshanson@mac.com>]

	Comments on two related messages, regarding the editing of Stata files 
on Unix, follow:


On Sep 1, 2006, at 5:07 PM, SamL wrote:

[snip]


> Second, those who write code on a unix box with few bells and whistles
> (e.g., color) are seriously advantaged by being able to specify their 
> own
> delimiter.
	I write code on a Unix box, and I'm afraid I don't follow your logic.  
There exist Unix editors that offer syntax highlighting -- see the Text 
Editors with Stata FAQ:

<http://fmwww.bc.edu/repec/bocode/t/textEditors.html#syntax>

Even the lowly nano editor -- which I must confess I use frequently in 
Unix -- offers syntax highlighting:

<http://www.nano-editor.org/>

If you haven't yet tried a text editor with syntax highlighting, I 
think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the productivity boost.

	Beyond that, I personally do not find it easier to recognize that a 
line is continuing by the absence of ; than by the presence of /// -- 
but of course, YMMV.  I find that aligning all /// code in the far 
right-hand column, along with indenting continuing lines, makes it very 
easy to skim my code and see exactly which commands are on multiple 
lines -- whether or not syntax highlighting is enabled.


On Sep 1, 2006, at 5:46 PM, Dimitriy V. Masterov wrote:


> The reason that I care about this issue that I reserve "/*...*/"
> comments for substantive comments, and use a Vim text editor script to
> comment out parts of code using "//". This is why using ";" at the end
> of the last line is not an option: it makes toggling comments
> impossible. For this purpose, however,
>
> #d;
> * comment;
> * comment;
> pwd;
>
> works like a charm. The "//" behavior is still a mystery.
	As I hinted above, I am not a vim (nor emacs) connoisseur / 
evangelist.  However, I suspect it should be possible, through some 
clever use of regexp (interacting with ruby, perl, etc.?) to create a 
command that toggles in the way you need with the // notation.  Someone 
with much more experience with vim will have to help you there.

	But I still would aver that it is easier to avoid using -delimit- 
altogether, and toggle all your comments with // -- including those in 
the middle of a line.  One additional advantage of using /// for line 
continuations is that it also serves as a comment delimiter for any 
text placed after it on a line.  I use this approach to place comments 
in the midst of 10 - 15 line graph commands, in order to later remind 
myself (or my RAs) why a particular graph option is specified the way 
it is.  Hope this helps.

                                        -- Mike

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/