st: lines starting with * used as dereference operator in Mata are displayed as comments (Stata 12)

[csfr1@eml.cc]

Hi there,

The Stata Do-file editor seems to misinterpret the * signs when used in 
Mata as dereference operators for pointers when they are a the beginning 
of a line.

For example, assume the following short program where pointer s refers 
to scalar a:

version 12
mata
a=3 // scalar a takes on value=3
p=&a // pointer p refers to scalar a
*p // dereferences p and displays value
end

The program works fine, but the line starting with * is wrongly 
displayed in green as if it were a comment in Stata.

I find this visually confusing. Any idea how to stop this?

BTW, Mata would not allow * at the beginning of a line to enter a 
comment (only //, /// and /* */ are allowed), and I reckon that this is 
precisely because it could be misinterpreted as a dereference operator.

My Stata version: Stata/SE 12.1 for Windows (64-bit x86-64), Revision 08 
Aug 2012

Thanks for your help

Claudio Sfreddo
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