Have you considered defining a special conditional variable like __VISUAL_ASSIST_X__ in your parser? With such a conditional, one could write code like
#ifndef __VISUAL_ASSIST_X__
some_code_that_confuses_vax;
#endif
and get away with it without, well, confusing VAX Sure your parser does a great job, but it would be nice to have such an option just in case. If your parser ignores #ifdef/#ifndef directives completely, a special comment like
// VISUAL_ASSIST_PARSER_OFF
some_code_that_confuses_vax;
// VISUAL_ASSIST_PARSER_ON
would do as well.