> Do not the same considerations essentially apply to the well established
> /* .... */ convention used in C? Well maybe you simply *can't* get the "*/"
> string within a block of C code, but still ....
Yes, the same problem arises in C. And you _can_ get */ in valid code - as the
closing part of a comment. Attempts to nest C block comments result in part of
the outer block becoming uncommented and the outer block comment terminator
becoming invalid syntax.
For example
main() {
/*
/* Hello world */ <- now the comment terminator
printf("hello world")
/* <- oops
}
Avoiding that trap is one reason that ANSI C block comments often use an extra
' *' at the beginning of each line - as in
/* **************
* An example ANSI C
* heading
* ************** */
which rather undermines the convenience of the whole thing.
So there's probably more than one reason // was added to C. That and better
editors.
S Ellison
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