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Asked: 2026-06-17T15:38:05+00:00

Using Code::Blocks IDE for Mac in my C++ class, I’m spending some time trying

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Using Code::Blocks IDE for Mac in my C++ class, I’m spending some time trying to clean up my first lab with comments and the like, and the syntax highlighting alerted me to something I can’t seem to find documentation over online.

    /**
      Author: Name
      Lab1
      Purpose: simulate a calculator with informative menu
    */

has a different highlighting color than simply

    /*
      What I thought
      a normal multiline comment
      was...
    */

and even different still from

    // Models a basic calculator with looping menu until sentinel or invalid operator is given

I’m curious as to what the purpose/function is to the first code snippet. In Java, this is a docstring. Does it serve the same purpose in C++? If not, what is it, and how is it conventionally used?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The first is a comment that Doxygen will recognize as documentation. Doxygen is modeled after Javadoc. And it’s rather popular, so it’s not surprising that Code::Blocks recognizes it. Doxygen can generate output in a wide variety of formats, including straight HTML that can be viewed with a web browser.

    I don’t know why it decided that the 2nd and 3rd examples should be a different color. Maybe because one is a block comment and another is ‘until the end of line’ comment. But that seems like a somewhat trivial distinction to me.

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