To:         J3 Members                                       J3/16-129r1
From:       Van Snyder & Steve Lionel
Subject:    Absurdity concerning namelist comment
Reference:  16-007
Date: 2016 February 08

1. Introduction
===============

10.10.2p3 says a slash is a value separator.

10.11.3.6p1 says 'a "!" character after a value separator ... initiates
a comment.'

10.11.3.2p3 says "A slash encountered as a value separator during the
execution of a namelist input statement causes termination of execution
of that input statement...."

10.11.3.2p4 says "A namelist comment may appear after any value
separator except a slash."

10.11.3.2p5 says "Successive namelist records are read by namelist input
until a slash is encountered; the remainder of the record is ignored and
need not follow the rules for namelist input values."

If a "!" appears after the slash that "causes termination of execution
of that input statement" is the remainder of the record ignored
(10.11.3.2p5), or does an error condition exist because a comment is not
permitted after the slash (10.11.3.2p4), or is it OK because the input
need not follow the rules for namelist input values (10.11.3.2p5)?

The contradiction appears to be somewhat (errrm... completely) absurd.

Hopefully, an interp is not needed to clear this up.

2. Edits
========

[274:28 10.11.3.2p4] Delete "except a slash".