Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!decwrl!cae780!donald
From: donald@cae780.csi.com (Donald Maffly)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: ANSI C and comment preprocessing
Message-ID: <11228@cae780.csi.com>
Date: 8 Jan 91 00:17:23 GMT
Organization: Comdisco Systems Inc., Foster City, CA
Lines: 32


In pre-ANSI C compilers, I noticed that it was possible
to place a comment within an idenitfier without
splitting the identifier in two.  

The following code segment illustrates this, and 
compiles "sans erreur" on all of our C compilers
(which claim to support ANSI C):

main()
{
	int my/* comment */var;
	myvar = 1;
}

This example may seem pretty obscure to some of you, 
but there do exist people who know this
to be a trusted and accepted feature in older C compilers, so
it can't be too obscure.

Well, in "The C Programming Language" (2nd Edition), which
purports to laying down ANSI C Standards, reads in section 
"A12.  Preprocessing", item #5:
	
	"[...] comments are replaced by a single space;"

Now, if this were true, then the code segment above
wouldn't compile.  

Can anyone help me answer this koan????

Donald Maffly