Re: python.el doesn't define `comment-start-skip'

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> It's implied in newcomment.el that `comment-normalize-vars' should be
> called before using the library, which creates `comment-start-skip' if
> necessary.  However, many programming modes seem to define it themselves;
> cperl-mode uses "#+ *", and the old python-mode.el uses just "# *". 
> Should this be added?

The old commenting code (i.e. before newcomment.el) did not know how to
build comment-start-skip from comment-start, so many major modes set
it manually.  Other major modes set it manually because newcomment.el
doesn't do a good enough job of guessing the value of
comment-start-skip.
In the case of python.el I don't think it's necessary.


        Stefan "going through some of his voluminous backlog"