Comments

[BookOwl]

This is probably important. 😉 EDIT: After discussion, I've decided to use /* Comment */

[BookOwl]

What should the comment syntax be?

1. /* C style */
2. { Pascal style }
3. # Python-ish style #
4. <| Something I made up |>
5. {| Something else I made up |}
6. <- HTML-ish ->
7. (| Bananas |)
8. (: Emojis :)
9. Indention (files are a superset of MarkDown)
10. ? Question marks and ??? Multiline ???

@liam4 @nanalan @jonathan50 @TheMonsterFromTheDeep @algmwc5 please tell me which one you guys think is best (and be serious please)

[joker314]

I am not one of the people listed, but oh well. I'll rank them in order, so my favourite will be at the top, and the one I dislike most will be 8th

1. 6
2. 1
3. 2
4. 8
5. 3
6. 4
7. 7
8. 5

5 just seems to be vertically misaligned and thus displeasing to the eye.

[ghost]

I would prefer C style comments as they're used in a good amount of languages and sometimes pseudocode. Line comments (in the form of //) would be nice too instead of only multiline.

[TheMonsterFromTheDeep]

I like both C-style and Python-ish style. I'm honestly actually not sure which one I like better - although I think whichever one you choose should support block comments.

[joker314]

I like many of the brackets where the opening and closing character is different. Oh, and an interesting feature I would suggest is allow you to escape comment endings. Not sure how useful this would be, but a

< My comment \> continues till here> and then stops

might be cool, not sure though.

I don't like the Python-ish one much because hashtags have a rightward slant that makes my brain think of it as an opening "bracket". If there was a hashtag in ASCII that slants in the opposite direction I'd say that could be a pretty cool comment system.

[BookOwl]

@joker314, I just didn't know your Github account.

Right now I'm deciding between 1 and 6. Thanks for the input guys! :D

[TheMonsterFromTheDeep]

I personally don't really find angle brackets to be that attractive for commenting. However, that may simply be because I'm so used to other symbols for it... :package:

I think however that the best choice for this language is something that clearly marks said comment as descriptive, and I honestly have no idea what the best syntax to do that might be. I think something with quotation marks might work, like <" comment > because that sort of marks it as a note, but then there is the confusion between that and string syntax...

The other symbol I think might work with commenting is the question mark, so maybe something like <? comment > would be good. I like the question mark in comments because it sort of looks distinct from code and it also sort of conveys the notion that it's there to help.

I also agree with io that inline comments would be nice too - I think question marks would also work well for that, e.g.

? This method calculates the factorial of parameter n.
? This is not the most efficient way to do it, but it works for demonstration purposes.
to factorial with (n) do ...

[jeandrek]

Hmmm. I like 2-5.

@TheMonsterFromTheDeep Then you can't name procedures or variables stuff like is_integer?. Oh, Haumea doesn't allow question marks in names anyway lol

[ghost]

@Jonathan50 You can't on quite a few other languages either 📦

[TheMonsterFromTheDeep]

@Jonathan50 Yeah, there are certainly problems with question marks. :P

I think it's honesty pretty difficult to design a perfect comment syntax for this language, because comment syntax needs to be concise and not interfere with other syntax, but in this case it should also be relatively readable. :/

[ghost]

@TheMonsterFromTheDeep Maybe # or even --? Python, Elixir use the former, Lua the latter, and they all are similar to Haumea in style. I'm kinda leaning to them since, now that I think of it, \\ feels too "advanced" for a language of this kind.

[jeandrek]

There's the Smalltalk-style "...".

[ghost]

Shell style #Comments

[tjvr]

9. Files are a superset of markdown. Executable code is indented; comments are everything else...

[towerofnix]

I don't dislike --.

[CosmicWebServices]

C style

[BookOwl]

9. Files are a superset of markdown. Executable code is indented; comments are everything else...

That's interesting, I actually have heard of a language like that, but I don't know how many people are going to be writing documents that have Haumea code in it.

[tjvr]

I actually have heard of a language like that

I did shamelessly steal the idea from Eve :)

[bates64]

I like --, lua-style, or ?, both of which continue until newline. Multi-line comments are needed though.

If I had to pick one of the 6, I'd say JS/Python style.

[joker314]

Or you could do (for begginer friendliness)

comment 
...
end

[CosmicWebServices]

^^^

[towerofnix]

@joker314 I honestly can't tell if that's sarcastic or not.

[BookOwl]

I really like the question marks so far, but what about for multiline comments?

[towerofnix]

???
  Blah
???

[BookOwl]

That could work.

[joker314]

Unless somebody writes a comment like WHYY???? which will unfortunately close the comment

[towerofnix]

??? could require a line dedicated to itself.

[bates64]

? I'm a comment.
blah blah do
  ???
    this is a multiline comment
    really??? yes
  ???
  stuff
end

[CosmicWebServices]

or

***
Comment
***

[towerofnix]

I saw that. :P

[bates64]

Provided somebody writes syntax definitions for Haumea, the actually character shouldn't matter too much since comments would be highlighted :wink:

I keep on reading "Haumea" as "Haulea"

[joker314]

In the *** system, you can't posssibly write Terms and Conditions apply*** so it should be fine, and allow you to write comments in between tokens:

while ***this will loop*** x < 5 do

[joker314]

nanalan, yeah, but what if somebody is using Notepad to write Haumea

[towerofnix]

I guess inline comments are nice..?

? This will loop
while x < 5 do

But I prefer this placement of comments..

[joker314]

Of course but some people might write long one liners

[BookOwl]

@joker314 THEN THEY ARE NOT WORTHY TO USE HAUMEA!

[joker314]

eheehe

[bates64]

some stuff ? hi

? until a newline anywhere could work.

[towerofnix]

while (
  this and ? ..
  that and
  this or even that ? ..
)

[BookOwl]

I really like ? this is a comment for single line comments, and

???
Hi!
???

for multiline comments

[bates64]

gj with the markdown there :sunglasses:

[towerofnix]

I suppose I'm not allowed to +1 that, given I brought up the idea. :tada:

[bates64]

@BookOwl I also like the fact you used the same font that Gwiddle uses (?) for the Haumea logo :shipit:

[BookOwl]

Really? I never knew that.

[BookOwl]

Also, if users REALLY want inline multiline comments, they could do

while ??? This is my condition ??? foo() ??? This is my statement. ??? do
 bar()
end

[joker314]

Exactly.

[BookOwl]

If anybody has any major objections to question mark comments, speak up now.

[CosmicWebServices]

My idea works too

while ***This is my condition*** foo() *** This is my statement. *** do
   bar()
end

[joker314]

Hey, why not have two comment thingies

[CosmicWebServices]

I think I like *** better than ??? but is just my opinion