Soliciting feedback on compiler directives

[Charles]

An example compiler directive would be conditional compilation like C#'s "#if"

Another use would be to put cobra arguments at the top of a file.

But what should they look like? I don't want to double up any arithmetic operators since Cobra already does that for ** and // which are themselves arithmetic operators. @ and $ are reserved for future use. I don't think # is suitable as it's being used for comments.

I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear yours.

[dennis]

How about a keyword instead of a special character?

cobra args -one-option -another

cobra if somecondition
    cobra dosomething #nested compiler directive, e.g. to set an option
    dosomemore #this gets compiled (deducting one indentation level*)
cobra else
    dosomethingelse

The idea is that you're speaking to the compiler.

* for conditional compilation the "cobra" keyword would be indented at the level of the surrounding code and the result of satisfying the condition would then be returned at that level

[jonathandavid]

How about a keyword instead of a special character?

cobra args -one-option -another

cobra if somecondition
cobra dosomething #nested compiler directive, e.g. to set an option
dosomemore #this gets compiled (deducting one indentation level*)
cobra else
dosomethingelse

I like this idea... Chuck, finally what was your decision on this regard?

[Charles]

I'm no longer reserving @ for other usage. So I'm currently leaning towards @foo as in @if, @args, etc.

I had thought of the "cobra foo" idea myself at an earlier time, and it's quite logical, but it just doesn't stand out from the rest of the code. Also @foo could be useful within a line of code like @show(foo.bar.baz) expanding to:

'foo.bar.baz=[CobraCore.toTechString(foo.bar.baz)]'

[hopscc]

FWIW I'm comfortable with the existing '%%' prefix at start of line

Code: Select all

%% warning pull up whoop whoop

%% number float32

%% args -ref:myLibNamedFunny


It stands out strongly from executable code and being wired to the start of line its not mistakeable for any sort of arithmetic operator.