What is the reason behind not having a simpler multi-line comment in Perl?

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 ac开发者_JS百科hieve multi-line comments. Are there any plans to include this feature in Perl anytime soon?

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!

There was a discussion regarding this on the perl6-language@perl.org mailing list. Although in the end the discussion was inconclusive, the summary posted here makes for interesting reading.

As with any multiline comment structure, there will be a "open" and a "close" comment condition, and that leads to problems with nested comments.

for example, C uses /* as the open and */ as the close. How does a multiline comment system handle comments within comments? C will fail if you try to comment a block that is already commented.

Note that line-based comments (e.g. c++ // comments) do not suffer this problem.

Simplicity is in the eye of the beholder. That said, there are already a number of ways to do multi-line comments. First, void string literals:

q{This text won't do anything.
Neither will this.};

This has the unfortunate side effect of triggering a warning:

Useless use of a constant in void context at - line 4.

Another option is using a heredoc in void context - for some reason this doesn't cause a warning:

<<ENDCOMMENT;
Foo comment bar.
ENDCOMMENT

As you can see, the problem isn't the lack of syntax as such (python doc comments look vaugely similar to the q{} method in fact) - it's more just that the community of perl programmers has settled on line comments using # and POD. Using a different method at this point will just confuse people who have to read your code later.