Julia: Feature request: Better comments

[JaydevSR]

I propose a new feature for future versions of Julia that comments support mathematical typesetting similar to LaTeX/TeX, and also a way to write variables by their name in comments something like:

my_var = 5
# value of my variable is $(my_var)

This can be new type of commenting which gets replaced by other text after the code gets executed once. This can be a hit on performance but for sake of its purpose of better presentation it may not matter that much. It may be helpful for academic and teaching purposes.

[KristofferC]

a way to write variables by their name in comments

What does that mean? A comment is not executed, you just read it in the source code file.

[JaydevSR]

It can be like a one time execution on the first run of program that gets replaced.

[logankilpatrick]

So after the above program is run, it would have to write to the currently open file and update the location of my_var with the value?

It seems like maybe Notebooks for Academic/Teaching folks would serve the same purpose as this.

[JaydevSR]

So after the above program is run, it would have to write to the currently open file and update the location of my_var with the value?

It seems like maybe Notebooks for Academic/Teaching folks would serve the same purpose as this.

But an .ipynb file can not be used as a .jl script for many purposes.

[JeffBezanson]

I think a tool like Weave.jl is the right approach to this.

[KristofferC]

But an .ipynb file can not be used as a .jl script for many purposes.

https://github.com/fredrikekre/Literate.jl might be useful

[JaydevSR]

Well it seems like if someone needs this some packages are available and more can be developed for this specific purpose. I just raised the issue following a StackOverflow question about such feature to see how this can be done.

[logankilpatrick]

@JaydevSR thanks for opening the issue and suggesting the idea! I hope that Literate or Weave can help cover your use-case!