Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site orca.UUCP 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]