Re: [O] Proposal to replace the prefix repetition with whitespace during expansion of noweb references

[Sebastien Vauban]

Pontus Michael wrote:
> I recommend to introduce a change that will replace the inserted prefix
> with whitespace of equal length. If it was the case then provided
> example would produce the following code after expansion:
>
> #+begin_src emacs-lisp
> (concat "foo"
>         "bar")
> #+end_src
>
> Here are the arguments in support of my proposal:
>
> 1) The proposed behavior is identical to one produced by original noweb.
>
> 2) Documentation provides a reasoning for current behavior as an example
>    of reference expansion after the introduction of single-line comment
>    with intention to comment all the lines caught in expansion. This
>    reasoning follows simplistic assumption of semantics of arbitrary
>    language and takes advantage of the single line comment notation used
>    for non-intended purpose (i.e. multiline comment should have been
>    used instead).
>
> 3) Continuing the line of examples given in emacs lisp, which lacks the
>    notation for multiline comments I fail to see a situation where
>    docstrings would not only serve the intended purpose, but in many
>    cases contribute to quality and readability of the code.
>
> 4) Current behavior lacks the mechanism for handling multiple noweb
>    references present on the same line. If prefix would be extracted
>    from the unexpanded code and expansion would include raw noweb
>    references notation. Clearly this is unexpected behavior.
>
> If my proposal will find support in the community I can put my own
> effort in bringing this change into existence.

I am more or less the one who asked for the current behavior because
I wanted to be able to easily comment blocks in SQL or ELisp or ...

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
SELECT *
FROM table
WHERE <<cond1>> AND
      -- <<cond2>> AND
      <<cond3>>
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

However, as you say, in the SQL case, I could have used multiline
comments.

This is a pity it does not exist in ELisp.

However, your arguments 1 and 4 are important to me. Hence, I'd see no
objection to move in the direction you propose (insert whitespaces, so
that indentation is correctly done).

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban