Ben Supnik Wrote:But I think Roland has found one: the implicit algorithm can't tell the 'header' from in-part comments - they are different semantically but not syntactically; a new meta would make this visible in syntax for automated processing.
Yes, that's true. That's the only thing that cannot be achieved by the current syntax.
However: let me counter this with the argument that this special case, where in-file comments
start right after the header, is very seldom. It only happens on exhaustively documented
parts, and my guess is that of all our currently official files this affects at most 10 or 20 or so files.
This doesn't convince me that the new token really is required. It does not really hurt if
these some extra comments are parsed as well, in these few special cases.
Especially since LDFind anyway indexes the whole file, which makes it more powerful.
We're talking here about a small beautification for a vanishing amount of files affected.
I cannot see the benefit. The small gain is outweighed by all the hassle of introducing the new language element.
This is my personal opinion.
In file format specification, minimalism is the way to go. It keeps the complexity of your format small.
If you too liberally add syntax elements, you end up with something as syntax-complex like perl.
You will not want to write an error-free parser for that...