# strip_comments:
# return part of string up to first character in 'markers',
# or else the whole string if no comment marker is present
procedure strip_comments (str, markers)
  return str ? tab(upto(markers) | 0)
end

procedure main ()
  write (strip_comments ("apples, pears   and bananas", cset ("#;")))
  write (strip_comments ("apples, pears # and bananas", cset ("#;")))
  write (strip_comments ("apples, pears ; and bananas", cset ("#;")))
end