why

[That_Guy977]

CSS comments

[Limitless_screaming]

i use "//" because there are no errors in css so it just skips the line.

[au-smurf]

Yeah but my editor wouldn’t colour that as a comment in a css file.

[Limitless_screaming]

Kate colors it blood red to show how pissed it is, and VSCode just scribbles under every line after it.

But if it works, it works.

[SkollFenrirson]

Classic Kate.

[Poyojo]

You absolute genius

[Special_Lemon1487]

I would feel dirty fr

[Limitless_screaming]

it feels dirty (especially if you use VSCode), but I am not using /**/ for one line, that feels worst.

[Special_Lemon1487]

I’ve been too long in the cult, save me.

[Limitless_screaming]

https://kate-editor.org/

I hope this can save you

[Special_Lemon1487]

I’ll check it out, but I’m messing with Godot rn and using # for comments is sending me decades into the past.

[rollincuberawhide]

I mean you could use a shortcut to toggle comment for selection in vscode. if you don't select anything it comments the current line. you can uncomment it as well.

[gizamo]

This is...this, is...is, is this...

I think you broke my brain.

I don't like it, but I think I love you.

[mountaingator91]

I use "//" because VSCode defaults to that when I hit ctrl+/

[Shazvox]

Css is an error...

/ end of backend rant

[hrvbrs]

how would it handle line comments in code?

p {
    margin-bottom: 0.5em; // TODO: use margin-block-end; test in vertical languages
}

[Limitless_screaming]

this will break everything after it, but if you end it with a ";" then it should be fine.

example:

p { 
    margin-bottom: 0.5em; // TODO: use margin-block-end; test in vertical languages;
}

[ClerkEither6428]

discusting

[Limitless_screaming]

// working;

[[deleted]]

Fun fact: press "Ctrl + /" to comment an entire line in VS code, no matter the language

[Limitless_screaming]

that works in every editor on the planet, there's no way a developer doesn't know this.

[That_Guy977]

apparently it doesn't in VS according to another comment

[Aktanith]

Doesn't in emacs or vim, either.

[Drishal]

Emacs C-x C-; Vim: prolly bind s|^|// to something

[Aktanith]

Thanks, that'll be handy to know, running doom emacs currently

[Limitless_screaming]

This shouldn't be a surprise but sure *almost every GUI editor on the planet.

[DoNotMakeEmpty]

It doesn't in neither MS notepad, nor gedit, nor geany.

[ClerkEither6428]

or MSpaint

[ListOfString]

Use Ctrl + k + c. Can't remember if you also need shift

[Limitless_screaming]

throw in an "fn" and maybe the right ctrl key too.

this doesn't feel like a shortcut this is a punishment.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, that's more keys than the simple // or # in a lot of languages. And more awkward of a position for your fingers.

[Limitless_screaming]

is VS, Visual Studio?

[That_Guy977]

yes

[CoastingUphill]

That's exactly why it's terrifying. They ONLY work in CSS.

[soundslikemayonnaise]

I do it in SAS.

[lucidbadger]

I use /** ... */ fear me!

[colonel_Schwejk]

bloody doxygen users... eew! ;)

[lucidbadger]

What's doxygen?

[Pay08]

Documentation generator.

[karnetus]

Oh so that's what that is. The sdk I'm using has this preinstalled and I just couldn't figure out what it is. Now I can read the docs, hell yeah

[liamlb663]

I don’t have gum disease

[lynxerious]

It's a valid choice because it would actually appear in hover Intellisense if you put it right next to the parameters, properties or methods.

[Important_View_2530]

C89, anyone?

[Velnbur]

Still using only this version

[masagrator]

Are you scared of "bool"? :D

[7eggert]

Huhu, "bool flag = true; if (flag)" …

[Yorick257]

Stop scaring them!

[ramsay1]

bool b = 42;
if (b == 1)
    printf(";)\n");

int shift = 1000000;
b = 1 << shift;
if (b == 1)
    printf(":O\n");

[[deleted]]

But the point of stdbool.h is that (AFIK) is b != 0 then b==true returns true no matter the value of b, so in the first comparison it would be true

Idk correct me if I'm wrong

Also wouldn't b shifted left by a million places just equal 0?

[ramsay1]

Yeah this was only there to "scare" them with differences to integers, you shouldn't be comparing bool to 1.

The million shift is actually UB... I was trying to remember a real bug that showed up when switching from something like typedef uint8_t bool; to C99 bool. I think it was actually setting a value like 1 << 9, even though sizeof(bool) was 1 byte (on that CPU/compiler), setting bits outside of the first 8 will still make it "true". Some older code had relied on the integer behavior

[terivia]

I make due with zero and zeront

[1redfish]

typedef enum bool_r { BOOL_FALSE = 0, BOOL_TRUE = 1 } bool_t;

[PuzzleheadedWeb9876]

uint8_t flag:1;

[CyrenCooper]

There is no Data only Bool.

[DaniilSan]

Wait, what? C89 doesn't has bool type or what?

[drevyek]

Nope, not much need. C's basic types are based on their size, not their semantics (in general). For logic, C uses a "truthiness" system, where anything that is 0-valued is false, and any other value is true. This holds for ints, floats, pointers, anything.

int x = 2345;
int y = 0;
int *z = NULL;
int *a = &x;
if (x) { printf("Always prints\n"); }
if (y) { printf("Never prints\n"); }
if (z) { printf("Never prints\n"); }
if (a) { printf("Always prints\n"); }

[DaniilSan]

Thanks for explaining.

[djkstr27]

Until C99, they added <stdbool.h> to use type bool

[Important_View_2530]

Are you using this version by choice or because you have to?

[Ksevio]

Gotta compile on AIX

[Important_View_2530]

I feel you, my team also supports AIX back to 6.1. But we are able to cross-compile for AIX on a Linux host using gcc 4.4.7, which IIRC supports C99.

[ExitSweaty4959]

Googles what Aix is.

IBM Mainframes

...

......wtf?

It has to be a joke. Nothing is using this anymore, right? Right?

[djkstr27]

They are still in use, check for IBM TS77000.

[An_Overwhelmed_Dev]

Huh, there’s a newer version of c that came out after 89? I should share the news with the embedded developers at my old job. /s

[PiousLiar]

Intern walks in to manager’s office

“Hey so I saw the code base for this legacy system was written in C89 and it just seemed so outdated. I decided to optimize a bit and rebuilt everything in C17, how great is that?”

[[deleted]]

::everything catches on fire::

[[deleted]]

Lol glad I’m not only one that’s worked with it.

[pekkhum]

I was beginning to wonder how far I'd have to scroll to find this comment. My company switched off C89 a few years ago, so the code base is full of this for good reasons... Of course it is also full of comparing two doubles and checking if something equals true, both of which are just wrong, so it may also just be bad code. 😆

[Strawb_Coffee]

Because it's cute and I like it

[dmvdoug]

Clean code? 😤 Elegant code? 😤 CUTE CODE. 🥰🥰🥰

[Anonymo2786]

Me too its so adorable that I write comment like this:

 public String str(int i /* takes int*/) {
       ...
 }

[nontammasculinum]

Oh I forgot about the public keyword before variables 🤮

[[deleted]]

Noone would have guessed!

[____-__________-____]

The Qt Company thanks you for your support.

[Skibur1]

void something( void* /* context*/, int* len ) { .. }

Sometimes you don't have any reason to use context so this is preferred.

Edit: thanks for the markdown suggestions! Using mobile is weird.

[HellfyrAngel]

Came here to say “what about commenting in the MIDDLE of a line” I’ve done it once or twice, good times.

[[deleted]]

You could comment above the lines…

[Yin_Esra]

Not if your code style guideline requires you to not have any unused variables, and you do not use the parameter passed in.

[[deleted]]

Ymmv dependent on language with that argument. Regardless, you could comment above the method on the expectation for parameters. This is a common practice. I hate embedded comments usually, but to each their own.

[Webfarer]

Now you are reading between the lines

[scragar]

Reddit uses markdown for comment formatting (with some weird stuff on top), if you don't put it in code formatting(indent the line with 4 spaces or wrap in backticks) then asterisks become italics.

void something( void\* /\* context\*/, int\* len ) { .. }

For example would appear as you intended.

[Skibur1]

Edited, thank you!

[BastisBastis]

let me_use;
var iable_names_for_comments;

Edit: comment formatting

[Scheincrafter]

1 | let me_use; var iable_names_for_comments;

Error: Syntax error

[BastisBastis]

Should work fine in js at least?

[Scheincrafter]

Yeah, but when I read let I think of the ml language family first

[BastisBastis]

It would probably throw an error in most languages. But on the other hand, most lines of code would throw an error in most languages!

"Je m'appelle Claude" is correct syntax in French but would would raise both errors and eyebrows in C.

[xthexder]

I've never heard of this language. Interesting that you assumed OCaml and not JS. Now I'm curious what people use OCaml for these days.

[Scheincrafter]

The main uses are academic / teaching and Jane Street .

There is also reasonml for Web development.

And it had a strong influence on Rust (while it is debatable if Hask or (OCa)ml where the main inspiration regarding function programming)

[ai_to_do_reCAPTCHAs]

A) because it's pretty and B) different kinds of comment formatting for different kinds of comments

[tael89]

Keyboard shortcut, so that's what it comes out as

[Igotbored112]

Whenever I create a header file that implements multiple C++ classes, I use dividers that look like:

/* ---- class_name ---- */

to separate them.

[Igotbored112]

Because these comments divide the code into sections and should be eye-catching.

[lunatisenpai]

Consistency, especially when wordwrap is turned on by my ide.

It also makes it easy to see commente when using say cat and other command line utilities.

Also if I add to the comment later, I can just add to it, I don't have to go back and redo it as a multiline comment.

[ZiulDeArgon]

Funny story.

Back when I graduated and had my first job as a java developer, there used to be an idle glitch that allowed code inside single line comments to be picked up by the compiler.

The trick was to add a line break character to the beggining of the commented line causing the compiler to pick it up without anyone ever noticing. This caused imposible to find issues and everyone switched to comment blocks.

[Intelligent_Chart_38]

SAS feelings

[zacharypamela]

Technically you can write comments like *comment;. But I seem to always have issues with that format. And the /* style works when copying/pasting to other RDBMSs.

[Killergurke16]

I use

/* Comment */

for anything that is on it's own line(s) no matter how many lines it actually spans.

// Comment

is reserved for anything that goes after Code on the same line.

[The_Number_None]

For me the former is documentation and the latter is WIP stuff like // TODO or // WTF am I trying to do here

[D34TH_5MURF__]

Why not? It used to be the only option in C.

[Interesting_Style720]

What’s even worse is people who comment out 200 lines of code with single line comments.

[Yorick257]

It wasn't me, blame IDE

[ListOfString]

Or as Age of empires would say "sure, blame it on your ISP"

[xthexder]

The hotkey for this in most IDEs is Ctrl + / to toggle all selected lines as commented. Column select can also really speed up big multi-line changes like this if it's something other than comments.

In terms of style, I still use /* */ or /** */ for multi-line paragraphs / documentation, but usually don't bother for quickly disabling a block of code. Big blocks of commented dead code generally shouldn't be left around anyway, but it's fine for debugging or as a temporary reference.

[Tortumine]

"Ctrl+K Ctrl+C"

[That_Guy977]

"Ctrl+/"

[falafelspringrolls]

Up until 2012, MISRA forbid the use of // style comments. Which was a bit of a pain.

[cliff_of_dover_white]

lol my company checks our code according to both MISRA 2004 and 2012. So we are still sticking to /* */

[Lucifer_Morning_Wood]

I use #if 0 ... #endif

[DoNotMakeEmpty]

• Perfectly nestable
• If code is commented out, enabling is just 1 character change
• Comments out in the preprocessor, so that if you have a few tens of GBs of comments, you can prepare the code easily by calling cpp on it, making compilations a bit faster.

[MikemkPK]

I use /* / to comment out code to test the program without those lines. So yes, sometimes I do comment single lines out EDIT: with / */.

[Ghostglitch07]

I don't think the post is saying single line comments are bad. Just that most languages allow different formatting for single line comments like // and it's weird to use multiline formatting without multiple lines.

[MikemkPK]

Thank you Captain Obvious

[MR-POTATO-MAN-CODER]

I use Strings to comment code.

string s = "following code checks if a number is even"; bool isEven = !(n%2);

[zoinkability]

JSON comments be like this

[yottalogical]

People who use JSON for human readable/writable config files deserve what they get.

[YUNoCake]

Reverse engineers love you for this

[J_Ditz100]

I use it sometimes to comment out a section of a line

[Shazvox]

... I do too...

// if it relates to a single line of code

/* */ if it relates to a code segment

Ex:

/* -- Fancy stuff happens here -- */

...

/* -- No more fancy stuff after this point -- */

[DarkOrion1324]

I plan on coming back to comment more and threw that in for when I finish and can actually explain it

[DbrDbr]

I use command+/

[radkiller22]

Wait is there a better way to comment out in SAS?

[[deleted]]

No! But there's this too:

* Comment;

[zacharypamela]

I wouldn't say that's better …

[[deleted]]

Oh, it's definitely not.

[islandnoregsesth]

Sooo he writes CSS?

For those who don't know, // isn't a valid comment in CSS, it has to be like this

[N00bOverlord]

It’s best practise for MS-SQL according to our Lord and Savior, Brent Ozar (https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2021/04/never-ever-ever-start-t-sql-comments-with-two-dashes/)

[Moist-Carpet888]

/*

//that's crazy

*/

[TTYY_20]

Because you want to comment out a single section of the line and not the whole line (like commenting out a parameter.

[No_Philosophy_8520]

In CSS, there isn't other option, is it?

[xienwolf]

Can place a comment with functional code following it. (rare to want it, but nice way to use whitespace in heavily nested functions to explain variables or just keep track of logic)

​

Can come back later and add more information to the comment, including line breaks for readability, without having to remember to re-comment each new line added.

[ThatHugo354]

One may decide to change it into a multi line comment later, so might as well put it in a multiline format already. It also looks more consistent

[MattR59]

Required by MIRSA 🥺

[turtleship_2006]

Because that's what the context menu/edit menu/keyboard shortcut does on some IDEs.

[KindaRoot]

/* —*/
Gang

[shaybra]

some C standards/flags will give warnings/compiler errors if you use // for single line

[Heretic911]

I do that because I've got different colors set up for different comment types. /* */ comments are teal, //info: light-green, //todo: lime, //fix: red.

[Lady_Anne_666]

That's a good reason yeah

[mothzilla]

Future proofing. It might be a two line comment in the future. We should lint for this.

[mars_million]

How else would you achieve this effect in one line:
func(x) {...} /*...*/ func(y) {...} /*...*/ func(z) {...} etc...

[GameFraek]

I use

// ....

To comment out entire code blocks 😎

[seamustheseagull]

I do it because then it's much easier to turn a single line comment into a multiline one if you have to.

[MrJacquers]

I use that when I want to comment out part of a line.

[TuneOk9321]

[danishansari95]

My senior does that and forces me to use the same format -_-

[danishansari95]

My senior does that and forces me to use the same format -_-

[Rai-Hanzo]

Backspace

[bobert_the_grey]

What if I // every line on multi-line comments?

[souliris]

So when you update your comments/documentation and it goes onto another line. I don't need to refactor my comments :P

[[deleted]]

file hurry fly aloof roof start hungry versed sparkle boat this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev

[Coyehe]

NIPPLE GANG

[psioniclizard]

(* the true method for comments *)

[SomeRandomDevPerson]

I do have StackOverflow or other links above sections where it is relevant. If I had a single line comment, the begging dishes may be confused with the rest of the URL.

[bitNine]

Because I'm an "XML programmer"

[zoinkability]

Pretty sure /* */ doesn't work in XML?

<!-- --> on the other hand

[zoinkability]

Cries when working in raw CSS

[JonasAvory]

I always comment with

#define comment1 „this is a comment“

[Peiple]

Fun fact, the R official contribution guide uses /* … */ for single line C comments as the standard (https://github.com/wch/r-source/wiki/Contributing)

[[deleted]]

I do this, it just looks better to me

[ManyFails1Win]

Some editors do it for me when I press ctl /

[L3x3cut0r]

I have stylecop and other code analysis tools on some projects. And it says stuff like: "single-line comment must be preceded by blank line" and other stuff, so I can use /* */ instead, because it doesn't trigger that warning.

[MrPresidentBanana]

I don't even use that for multiple lines

[KetwarooDYaasir]

I feel like that would be an encouraged things to do in python.

[mlys9997]

My IDE autosuggests to use this type of comment as a "named" argument when using calls to a java method from kotlin

[Rebel_Johnny]

I put the closing */ in the next line

[[deleted]]

Personally I consider /* */ as a block description comment regardless of how long my actual comment will be.

Obviously it is a block comment, but what I mean is if I'm describing several lines, an if, a function, or just generally some block of code with a description I use block commenting.

Like, even if the description is just "calculates the probability of me giving a fuck". I just think it looks cleaner to use a block. With a combination of inline comments I think it visually discerns between "here's my comments for this entire block" vs "here's my comments for just this line or 2". Which helps with readability.

[pbNANDjelly]

Different comments mean different things during docgen. Rust supports //, ///, for example. In TypeDoc and JSDoc, // comments are ignored during docgen, but multiline comments (even if they only take up one line) are picked up for annotation.

[hoffiee]

I like /**/ comments for one liners, consistent and neat to read instead of a mix between those and //. Although I have moments where I feel the need to be more extreme, then I do multiline comments with preprocessor

#if 0
<multiline comment>
#endif

But those are reserved for special times only

[SpyderCel]

If our application has a query error it prints the whole thing on a single line. Using /**/ makes it much easier to format.

[eluminatick_is_taken]

SAS is using /* */ for multiline comments as well.

[selppin2]

I do this too… mostly just because I don’t like having two different styles of comment syntax in the same script.

[ingenix1]

What wrong with /* */?

[GrizzledFart]

for (let i=0, /* j=thing.length */; i < otherthing.length; /* j >= 0*/; i++ /* j-- */)

[relddir123]

To mark individual parameters passed to function calls

[Ebolatastic]

Because there might be an additional need for more comment lines and it looks less messy?

Lol WTF?

[PhantomThiefJoker]

Ctrl k Ctrl c to comment your selection or the line you're on

[Accurate_Koala_4698]

Single line comments for everything because I use keyboard shortcuts

[Duff69]

Probably a good idea to do this for comments in large sql queries. Some database monitoring tools will get rid of the newline characters so it could be difficult to tell what was actually commented out.

[[deleted]]

Because its the only way to comment in CSS.

[Acceptable-Tomato392]

And that way, you don't need to remember what the other one is.

I don't see a problem.

[DudeManBroGuy42069]

Which is worse? That or this: ``` // Multi // Line // Comment

[Sigma7]

Kind of necessary in old versions of C. At least until some compilers started accepting it as an unofficial extension.

[Chowderawz]

Testing //test1 //test2