I also agree that the "*xxx" or "*(xxx, params...)" syntax is very fuzzy and will not work with the future evolution of annotations
E.g. If you want to add annotations for subexpressions, it will create very bad situation like
x = 1 + 2 * *nodebug( subexpression ).
x = 1 + 2 * *(roundmode,tozero)( subexpression ).
It will be much more readable (and less likely to cause syntax ambiguities) like this:
x = 1 + 2 * @nodebug( subexpression ).
x = 1 + 2 * @(roundmode,tozero)( subexpression ).
Annotations are very productive features in modern languages, notably for code generation, maintenance, digital signatures and security, interfaces to other languages and platforms (let's remember that Lua is a language intended to be embedded), or design by contract and documented/supported interfaces, and software life cycle. It also helps compilers.
