@# comments are becoming obsolescent. @# comments

can now be used. Within nested forms,
Lisp-compatible ; comments are suported.

* parser.l: Support @# and ; comments.

* txr.1: Documentation updated.

* txr.vim: Updated.

4 files changed, 47 insertions, 14 deletions

diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 45abf33b..226f38f9 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,17 @@
 2011-12-14  Kaz Kylheku  <kaz@kylheku.com>
 
+	@# comments are becoming obsolescent. @# comments
+	can now be used. Within nested forms,
+	Lisp-compatible ; comments are suported.
+
+	* parser.l: Support @# and ; comments.
+
+	* txr.1: Documentation updated.
+
+	* txr.vim: Updated.
+
+2011-12-14  Kaz Kylheku  <kaz@kylheku.com>
+
 	* lib.c (car, cdr): Set the lazy cons function to nil
 	after calling it.
 	(rplacd): Do not set the lazy cons function to nil
diff --git a/parser.l b/parser.l
index e7881a30..0ade291d 100644
--- a/parser.l
+++ b/parser.l
@@ -439,6 +439,9 @@ UONLY   {U2}{U}|{U3}{U}{U}|{U4}{U}{U}{U}
                                   return TEXT;
                                 }
 
+<SPECIAL,NESTED>[;].*   {
+                          /* comment */
+                        }
 <SPECIAL,NESTED>{UANYN} {
                           yyerrprepf(lit("bad character in directive: '~a'"),
                                      string_utf8(yytext), nao);
@@ -536,14 +539,14 @@ UONLY   {U2}{U}|{U3}{U}{U}|{U4}{U}{U}{U}
                   yy_push_state(SPECIAL);
                 }
 
-<INITIAL>^@#.*\n        {
+<INITIAL>^@[#;].*\n     {
                           /* eat whole line comment */
                           lineno++;
                         }
 
-<INITIAL>@#.*   {
-                   /* comment to end of line */
-                }
+<INITIAL>@[#;].*        {
+                          /* comment to end of line */
+                        }
 
 <STRLIT>\"      {
                   yy_pop_state();
diff --git a/txr.1 b/txr.1
index 37dca2a4..80dc14dd 100644
--- a/txr.1
+++ b/txr.1
@@ -170,9 +170,9 @@ Example:
   a=1
   b=2
 
-The @# comment syntax can be used for better formatting:
+The @; comment syntax can be used for better formatting:
 
-  txr -c "@#
+  txr -c "@;
   @a
   @b"
 
@@ -258,15 +258,15 @@ or more @(output) directive directed to standard output.
 
 .SS Comments
 
-A query may contain comments which are delimited by the sequence @# and
-extend to the end of the line. No whitespace can occur between the @ and #.
+A query may contain comments which are delimited by the sequence @; and
+extend to the end of the line. No whitespace can occur between the @ and ;.
 A comment which begins on a line swallows that entire line, as well as the
 newline which terminates it. In essence, the entire comment disappears.
 If the comment follows some material in a line, then it does not consume
 the newline. Thus, the following two queries are equivalent:
 
- 1.  @a@# comment: match whole line against variable @a
-     @# this comment disappears entirely
+ 1.  @a@; comment: match whole line against variable @a
+     @; this comment disappears entirely
      @b
 
  2.  @a
@@ -277,6 +277,10 @@ comment which follows does. Without this intuitive behavior,
 line comment would give rise to empty lines that must match empty
 lines in the data, leading to spurious mismatches.
 
+Instead of the ; character, the # character can be used. This is
+an obsolescent feature.
+
+
 .SS Hash Bang Support
 
 If the first line of a query begins with the characters #!,
@@ -1062,6 +1066,18 @@ There is no \e@ escape.
 A number is made up of digits 0 through 9, optionally preceded by a + or -
 sign.
 
+.SS Comments
+
+Comments of the form @; were already covered. Inside directives,
+comments are introduced just by a ; character.
+
+Example:
+
+  @(foo  ; this is a comment
+    bar) ; this is another comment 
+
+This is equivalent to @(foo bar).
+
 .SS Directives-driven Syntax
 
 Some directives not only denote an expression, but are also involved in
diff --git a/txr.vim b/txr.vim
index 26326137..974e136e 100644
--- a/txr.vim
+++ b/txr.vim
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ syn match txr_hash "#" contained
 syn match txr_quote "[,']" contained
 
 syn match txr_atat "@[ \t]*@"
-syn match txr_comment "@[ \t]*#.*"
+syn match txr_comment "@[ \t]*[#;].*"
 syn match txr_contin "@[ \t]*\\$"
 syn match txr_hashbang "^#!.*"
 syn match txr_char "@[ \t]*\\."
@@ -78,17 +78,18 @@ syn match txr_char "@[ \t]*\\[0-9]\+"
 syn match txr_variable "@[ \t]*[*]\?[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*"
 syn match txr_chr "#\\x[A-Fa-f0-9]\+"
 syn match txr_chr "#\\[a-zA-Z_][a-zA-Z0-9_]*"
+syn match txr_ncomment ";.*" contained
 
 syn match txr_ident "[a-zA-Z0-9!$%&*+\-<=>?\\^_~]\+" contained
 syn match txr_num "[+-]\?[0-9]\+" contained
 
 syn region txr_bracevar matchgroup=Delimiter start="@[ \t]*[*]\?{" matchgroup=Delimiter end="}" contains=txr_num,txr_ident,xr_string,txr_list,txr_regex,txr_quasilit,txr_chr
 
-syn region txr_directive matchgroup=Delimiter start="@[ \t]*(" matchgroup=Delimiter end=")" contains=txr_keyword,txr_string,txr_list,txr_meta,txr_quasilit,txr_num,txr_ident,txr_regex,txr_string,txr_variable,txr_chr,txr_hash
+syn region txr_directive matchgroup=Delimiter start="@[ \t]*(" matchgroup=Delimiter end=")" contains=txr_keyword,txr_string,txr_list,txr_meta,txr_quasilit,txr_num,txr_ident,txr_regex,txr_string,txr_variable,txr_chr,txr_hash,txr_ncomment
 
-syn region txr_list contained matchgroup=Delimiter start="(" matchgroup=Delimiter end=")" contains=txl_keyword,txr_string,txr_regex,txr_num,txr_ident,txr_variable,txr_meta,txr_list,txr_quasilit,txr_chr,txr_hash,txr_quote
+syn region txr_list contained matchgroup=Delimiter start="(" matchgroup=Delimiter end=")" contains=txl_keyword,txr_string,txr_regex,txr_num,txr_ident,txr_variable,txr_meta,txr_list,txr_quasilit,txr_chr,txr_hash,txr_quote,txr_ncomment
 
-syn region txr_meta contained matchgroup=Delimiter start="@[ \t]*(" matchgroup=Delimiter end=")" contains=txl_keyword,txr_string,txr_list,txr_regex,txr_num,txr_ident,txr_variable,txr_quasilit,txr_chrb,txr_hash,txr_quote
+syn region txr_meta contained matchgroup=Delimiter start="@[ \t]*(" matchgroup=Delimiter end=")" contains=txl_keyword,txr_string,txr_list,txr_regex,txr_num,txr_ident,txr_variable,txr_quasilit,txr_chrb,txr_hash,txr_quote,txr_ncomment
 
 syn region txr_string contained oneline start=+"+ skip=+\\\\\|\\"+ end=+"+
 syn region txr_quasilit contained oneline start=+`+ skip=+\\\\\|\\`+ end=+`+ contains=txr_directive,txr_variable,txr_bracevar
@@ -97,6 +98,7 @@ syn region txr_regdir oneline start=+@[ \t]*/+ skip=+\\\\\|\\/+ end=+/+
 
 hi def link txr_atat String
 hi def link txr_comment Comment
+hi def link txr_ncomment Comment
 hi def link txr_hashbang Comment
 hi def link txr_contin Comment
 hi def link txr_char String