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From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/3] Makefile: add commented out 's for Emacs here, too
Date: Sat, 30 May 2009 12:07:30 -0700
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Markus Heidelberg <markus.heidelberg@web.de> writes:

>> +# unconfuse Emacs: '
>> +
>> +# The above comment is in case there is an odd number of _SQ
>> +# definitions above, since they seem to confuse Emacs. If there is an
>> +# even number of such definitions, it does no harm, since emacs
>> +# doesn't recognize string delimiters inside recognized comments.
> ...
> I think this is way too much comment and would prefer none at all. I
> also would remove the global 4-line comment.

I personally do not like contaminating our source files with this kind of
magic crufts just to please broken tools, be they emacs or vim.  I would
hate them even more if they are not clearly commented why they exist for
two reasons.

 (1) without clear instructions ("odd number of ..." is not quite enough),
     people who do *not* use broken tools cannot keep them up-to-date when
     they make modifications;

 (2) when broken tools are finally fixed, nobody would remember why the
     magic crufts exist, and they will end up staying in the source for a
     long time.