Multiline comments are a bit of an anti-pattern at the best of times.
If you’re making this as a general statement, it varies from language to language. For example, CSS (and arguably HTML and Markdown) only supports multiline comments, and multiline comments are often used for documentation (as with jsdoc and, though only comments in the same way that heredocs to /dev/null are, Python).
It means neither of those, actually, just that CSS supports only multiline comments.
Multiline comments remain prevalent across ecosystems though (like in JS and Python). If you believe they’re bad there too, that’s fine, but the fact is that it would be an anti-pattern to go against those established standards.
CSS (and arguably HTML and Markdown) only supports multiline comments, and multiline comments are often used for documentation
Those aren’t programming languages. Because, especially in HTML, a line end does not end an instruction and is just for formatting. So single line comments would be very awkward in HTML, so they had to use multi only. And because CSS is meant to be used close to HTML, I think they opt in to the same. JavaScript in example has single line comments again.
Does any programming language exist that supports multiline comments only without single line comments?
Both HTML and CSS (when together) are turing complete, and JSX syntax only supports HTML comments in many places.
JavaScript having single line comments isn’t really relevant. Multiline comments are in heavy use there, arguably moreso than single line comments.
Edit: and I should add that “programming languages” is moving the goalpost. The person I responded to didn’t qualify their statement to programming languages.
I don’t think that being turing complete means anything in this discussion, because it does not change what the language is for and how its used and interpreted. HTML and CSS are not instructions for the CPU, they are markup languages describing text for humans, not compiling it down to execute machine code for CPUs.
Again, the discussion was about multiline comments, not programming languages.
And regardless of all that, JSX remains one of the most used languages in the world and supports only multiline comments in certain contexts, and JavaScript as a whole uses multiline comments generously.
The discussion was around multiline comments being an anti-pattern, which is entirely untrue. They just serve a different purpose than single-line comments, and usage varies from language to language.
The entire point was having multiline comments in POSIX shell. So that’s what we are discussing here right? That’s the entire reason we discuss this. Edit: Also as said, this is about programming languages, not markup languages.
Good example, at least historical. ;-) I wonder why they never added single line comments before. I mean it took them quite a long time to do so. Languages before 1960 even had single lines too.
Yeah but… Don’t. Multiline comments are a bit of an anti-pattern at the best of times. This is a war crime.
If you’re making this as a general statement, it varies from language to language. For example, CSS (and arguably HTML and Markdown) only supports multiline comments, and multiline comments are often used for documentation (as with jsdoc and, though only comments in the same way that heredocs to /dev/null are, Python).
But yeah, if you actually do this in Bash, wat.
The fact that CSS only supports multiline comments doesn’t mean multiline comments are good, it means CSS is badly designed.
It means neither of those, actually, just that CSS supports only multiline comments.
Multiline comments remain prevalent across ecosystems though (like in JS and Python). If you believe they’re bad there too, that’s fine, but the fact is that it would be an anti-pattern to go against those established standards.
Those aren’t programming languages. Because, especially in HTML, a line end does not end an instruction and is just for formatting. So single line comments would be very awkward in HTML, so they had to use multi only. And because CSS is meant to be used close to HTML, I think they opt in to the same. JavaScript in example has single line comments again.
Does any programming language exist that supports multiline comments only without single line comments?
Both HTML and CSS (when together) are turing complete, and JSX syntax only supports HTML comments in many places.
JavaScript having single line comments isn’t really relevant. Multiline comments are in heavy use there, arguably moreso than single line comments.
Edit: and I should add that “programming languages” is moving the goalpost. The person I responded to didn’t qualify their statement to programming languages.
I don’t think that being turing complete means anything in this discussion, because it does not change what the language is for and how its used and interpreted. HTML and CSS are not instructions for the CPU, they are markup languages describing text for humans, not compiling it down to execute machine code for CPUs.
Again, the discussion was about multiline comments, not programming languages.
And regardless of all that, JSX remains one of the most used languages in the world and supports only multiline comments in certain contexts, and JavaScript as a whole uses multiline comments generously.
The discussion was around multiline comments being an anti-pattern, which is entirely untrue. They just serve a different purpose than single-line comments, and usage varies from language to language.
It is an antipattern in Bash. He did not say that for HTML or JavaScript.
Bash doesn’t have multiline comments. Even the article acknowledges this lol. From context, it was a general statement, not specific to Bash.
The entire point was having multiline comments in POSIX shell. So that’s what we are discussing here right? That’s the entire reason we discuss this. Edit: Also as said, this is about programming languages, not markup languages.
C89, AKA ANSI C famously only supports
/* */, having//as a cross-pollinated idea from C++.Good example, at least historical. ;-) I wonder why they never added single line comments before. I mean it took them quite a long time to do so. Languages before 1960 even had single lines too.
I use this only when developing, mostly while debugging. IIRC I’ve never commited code like this.
Close notepad.exe. Open a real editor. Select the text you want to comment out. Press Ctrl-/