Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Lisp-style comments
Message-ID: <1989Apr27.163525.23661@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <3851@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 89 16:35:25 GMT

In article <3851@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> julian@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Julian Cowley) writes:
>Someone told me recently that the latest ANSI draft has
>Lisp-style comments, where two slashes at the beginning of a line
>mean that the rest of the line is to be treated as a comment.  Is
>this true, or is it just wishful thinking?

Wishful thinking.  He's probably confusing ANSI C with C++.  C++ does
have an alternate comment style in which // anywhere (not just at the
beginning of a line) starts a comment which runs to the end of the line.
This has also been a popular extension to C compilers, which may have
added to the confusion.  As of the Oct draft, it definitely is not part
of ANSI C, and I think I'd have heard about it if X3J11 was crazy enough
to make such a significant change at this late date.
-- 
Mars in 1980s:  USSR, 2 tries, |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
2 failures; USA, 0 tries.      | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
