### Question 20.20

Why don't C comments nest? How am I supposed to comment out code containing comments? Are comments legal inside quoted strings?

C comments don't nest mostly because PL/I's comments, which C's are borrowed from, don't either. Therefore, it is usually better to ``comment out'' large sections of code, which might contain comments, with `#ifdef` or `#if 0` (but see question 11.19).

The character sequences `/*` and `*/` are not special within double-quoted strings, and do not therefore introduce comments, because a program (particularly one which is generating C code as output) might want to print them.

Note also that `//` comments, as in C++, are not currently legal in C, so it's not a good idea to use them in C programs (even if your compiler supports them as an extension).

References: K&R1 Sec. A2.1 p. 179
K&R2 Sec. A2.2 p. 192
ANSI Sec. 3.1.9 (esp. footnote 26), Appendix E
ISO Sec. 6.1.9, Annex F
Rationale Sec. 3.1.9
H&S Sec. 2.2 pp. 18-9
PCS Sec. 10 p. 130

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