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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew
From: andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Why "//" can't be used as comment-to-end-of-line
Message-ID: <1247@orca.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 15-Dec-84 03:49:59 EST
Article-I.D.: orca.1247
Posted: Sat Dec 15 03:49:59 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Dec-84 03:23:09 EST
References: <375@ukma.UUCP> <4780@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 20

[]

	"If you must have a comment-to-EOL convention (great stuff, but
	it may be a bit late to add it to C), the character(s) used to
	mark it preferably should be unshifted and near the home row.
	"//" comes much closer to this than "$$"."

This suggestion keeps coming up.  If "//" were added to the language to
mean "comment from here to end of line", it would break programs
containing lines such as the following:

	quotient = /*numerator*/num//*denominator*/den;

It therefore is not a valid extension for consideration by ANSI X3J11
under there "don't break existing programs" rule.

If you want to use characters on the home row, why not "::"?

  -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew)       [UUCP]
                       (orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay)  [ARPA]