Question

I know different methods of introducing multi-line comments in Perl. But I want to know why it doesn’t have something simpler multi-line comment feature such /* comment */, which would make it much easier.

I currently follow http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=560985 to achieve multi-line comments. Are there any plans to include this feature in Perl anytime soon?

Answer 1

C-style comments come with a variety of difficult problems, including the inability to comment-out comments. Additionally, convenient syntax for one-line encourages concise writing, which makes your code easier to read. The absence of 10-line “Author: … Input: … Output: … Favorite Color: …” blocks that you see from time to time in C and C++ is another benefit.

Multi-line comments encourage long writing that is better expressed more concisely or as documentation, so this is what Perl encourages with its # and =pod operators (respectively).

Finally, if you are having trouble with Perl’s style of commenting, you should configure your editor to edit programs, not text. In Emacs, if you start writing something like # this is a comment that is getting longer and longer and longer and oh my goodness we are out of space on this line what to do now and type M-q, Emacs will automatically insert the # at the beginning of each line that it creates.

If you just want to comment-out a block of code, then you need look no further than M-x comment-region and M-x uncomment-region, which will comment out the region in pretty-much any language; including Perl.

Don’t stress about the syntax of comments; that’s the computer’s job!