There is a very simple solution to this problem.  We have two equivalent
ways to do comments, one of which is a single byte (conveniently
non-alpha so it's not case-sensitive).  I propose the following change
to the MPE CI:

[If the first byte is "#" then the rest of that line is completely
ignored for anything except possible echoing.]

Note: If "first byte" is replaced with "first non-whitespace byte" I
wouldn't care. Likewise, if the # logic works when

This will allow both opaque and transparent "comments", as needed, since
COMMENT lines can still have substitutions which might be useful in some
cases.

Examples:

COMMENT This comment will show the current group: !hpgroup
# This <comment> shouldn't do anything![right?]
echo group=!hpgroup # should !hpgroup substitution happen here?
<Preferably not.>
COMMENT So maybe !hpgroup should # and !hpgroup shouldn't.  :)

Hmmm... A quick test on MPE 7.0 makes it look like # can't be used to
add comments to the end of lines in the MPE CI.  If so, ignore those
last couple of examples.  (But it works in the shell.)
--
Jeff Woods
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Quintessential School Systems

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