karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer) (01/09/88)
In article <511@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes: >BCPL has end-of-line comments introduced by "//". I wonder whether the >reintroduction of this into C++ is a coincidence? I don't know (but I'll forward this article and all followups to the C++ newsgroup, so Bjarne can answer it if he wants to). However, I can tell you that I independently came up with the same idea (as one of many "proposed enhancements to C", most of which I recognized as being more properly part of a "wish list for D") several years ago, before I knew that BCPL and C++ did it. I considered it "obvious" that a comment-to-EOL symbol was desired, since people were putting redundant markers (often " * ") on the interior lines of block comments anyway; and somehow, "//" seemed like the most natural notation to use, given the existing C syntax. (My second choice would be something beginning with "#".) Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint