bash 2.05a appears to mishandle comments within $()

[ian]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i686
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-linux-gnu' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -D_GNU_SOURCE  -I.  -I. -I./include 
-I./lib -O2 -march=i386 -mcpu=i686
uname output: Linux gossamer.airs.com 2.4.18-27.7.x #1 Fri Mar 14 06:44:53 EST 
2003 i686 unknown
Machine Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 2.05a
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:

bash 2.05a appears to mishandle comments within $().  I looked at the
NEWS for bash 2.05b, and didn't see a fix.  However, I didn't actually
test 2.05b.

Repeat-By:

This example is straight from the IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 rationale,
section E.3.6.3.

echo $(
echo abc # a comment with )
)

This is supposed to simply print "abc".  With bash 2.05a, I get

abc
/home/ian/foo.sh: line 4: syntax error near unexpected token `)'
/home/ian/foo.sh: line 4: `)'

Evidently bash is not simply ignoring the comment within the command
substitution, as it should.

Note that when using backquote substitution, the occurrence of a
backquote in a comment is undefined.  The same is not true of the
occurrence of a close parenthesis in a comment when using $()
substitution.

This works correctly with the version of ash distributed with NetBSD
1.6.1.