I think putting the options in brackets is the clearest and is most similar to the options used in for example pragma's and virtual table declarations. Could a token-separator (space) be optional before the options as in to allow: analyze(fast) main.\*; analyze(fast, samples=25); as well as: analyze (fast) main.\*; analyze (fast, samples=25); which would make the options look (perhaps more) like an appendage/argument to analyze?