Why, in code, is there a tendency to use multiple // instead of a /**/ when writing multi-line comments?

do not know sorry

Just habit and what is easier at the time.

form preference

Style.

When I was first learning programming, there wasn't a multi-line comment, so I'm accustomed to using single-line comments for things like documentation. Some programming languages still don't have this feature.

I only use multi-line comments when debugging, and I want to skip a block of code.

This is just your supposition, and not a fact, and is based only on C, C++, and Java. Many

other languages have different styles: Python uses triple quotes for docstrings; Lisp, Scheme,

Racket and others use ; and dash-bracket combinations for comments; Haskell uses -- for

single-line comments and {- -} for multiline comments; OCaml uses another style, etc.

Don't be so parochial. The few lines of code that you've seen are a drop in the bucket.

>

> John (gnujohn)

personal preference

// means that whatever exists from there to the end of the current line is a comment.

For two line comments, it requires the same number of keystrokes as /* */. For more than two lines in a comment, // is less efficient in terms the number of key strokes.

Not all compilers support //. Some compilers support nested /* */ comments, while others do not. A nested comment looks like this:

/* start of comment 1

/* start of comment 2

end of comment 2 */

end of comment 1 */

I tend to use /* */ for temporarily disabling sections of code when I am debugging new code. If the compiler supports nested comments, it makes it much easier to disable large sections of code that already have comments included.

For compiler portability, using non-nested /* */ should offer the best independence across different compilers.

That's my view.

If you are using an editor that doesn't do syntax highlighting then using // will make it more clear which lines are comments and which aren't. This is especially important when you are commenting out code.

two less key presses each time.

I'm sure it's because it more clearly marks the whole block of text as comments, no matter what gibberish you've typed in there