defining a comment?

[Chris Torek]

>In article <13544 at mimsy.UUCP> I wrote:
>: >#define STARTCOM /*
>:
>: This is rather dubious.

In article <779 at proxftl.UUCP>, bill at proxftl.UUCP (T. William Wells) writes:
>I'd say that
>
>#define STARTCOM /*
>
>just defines STARTCOM as nothing and comments out anything
>following the #define.
>
>I'd also say that any compiler that didn't do this is broken.

Indeed, that is what it must do.  What was missing from
<5438 at techunix.BITNET> that prompted my `dubious' was any surrounding
context.  I got the impression that the intent might be to create a
macro that acted like an open-comment `/*' pair, e.g.,

	#define TNEMMOC */
	#define COMMENT /*

	COMMENT
	text to be commented out
	TNEMMOC
	code

which of course does not work.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris