Multiline Comment Workarounds?

Question

I (sort of) already know the answer to this question. But I figured it is one that gets asked so frequently on the R Users list, that there should be one solid good answer.

Answer 1

[Update] Based on comments.

# An empty function for Comments
Comment <- function(`@Comments`) {invisible()}

#### Comments ####
Comment( `

  # Put anything in here except back-ticks.

  api_idea <- function() {
    return TRUE
  }

  # Just to show api_idea isn't really there...
  print( api_idea )

`)
####

#### Code. ####
foo <- function() {
  print( "The above did not evaluate!")
}
foo()

---

[Original Answer]

Here's another way... check out the pic at the bottom. Cut and paste the code block into RStudio.

Multiline comments that make using an IDE more effective are a "Good Thing", most IDEs or simple editors don't have highlighting of text within simple commented -out blocks; though some authors have taken the time to ensure parsing within here-strings. With R we don't have multi-line comments or here-strings either, but using invisible expressions in RStudio gives all that goodness.

As long as there aren't any backticks in the section desired to be used for a multiline comments, here-strings, or non-executed comment blocks then this might be something worth-while.

#### Intro Notes & Comments ####
invisible( expression( `
{ <= put the brace here to reset the auto indenting...

  Base <- function()
  {      <^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the function as a header and nesting marker for the comments
         that show up in the jump-menu.
         --->8---
  }

  External <- function()
  {
    If we used a function similar to:
      api_idea <- function() {

        some_api_example <- function( nested ) {
          stopifnot( some required check here )
        }

        print("Cut and paste this into RStudio to see the code-chunk quick-jump structure.")
        return converted object
      }

    #### Code. ####
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <= Notice that this comment section isnt in the jump menu!
                                  Putting an apostrophe in isn't causes RStudio to parse as text
                                  and needs to be matched prior to nested structure working again.
    api_idea2 <- function() {

    } # That isn't in the jump-menu, but the one below is...

    api_idea3 <- function() {

    }

  }

    # Just to show api_idea isn't really there...
    print( api_idea )
    }`) )
####

#### Code. ####
foo <- function() {
  print( "The above did not evaluate and cause an error!")
}

foo()

## [1] "The above did not evaluate and cause an error!"

And here's the pic...