Question about the "//" comments' seen in C++

[digital]

Hello there. I am currently designing code for an Xbox 360 Game. The code runs on C++, and I have a question. While I read through the templates for my game, I see on every line a comment:

//comment here

These comments usually give advice to the editor (me) while editing and reviewing code. So for example, I see this:

//if there is nobody chosen for some reason, then just force him on a player

But what comes to my mind, is this:

//tag_origin thread draw_tag_angles( "origin_animate_jnt" );

So I ask. Is it safe to remove these types of things, or is it needed for debug. I do see the "//''s, but I also see code behind it. Any ideas. Thanks.

[Athar]

That's called "commenting out". You turn code you temporarily want to disable or code that you might need at a later date for debugging into comments. Since comments don't affect the behavior of the program, you can safely remove them if you want.

[chrisname]

When people comment out code, it's usually because it's incomplete, buggy, an optional/experimental feature, or the code is for debugging only (like assert()).

Edit: You win this time, Athar!

[Disch]

COMMENTED

http://xkcd.com/156/

[Duthomhas]

It is a common habit among professionals to use #if 0 ...#endif to comment out incomplete/buggy/optional/experimental stuff. Using #if 0 is an immediately recognizable signal to others that it is the case.

See also:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/C___Portability_Guide#Use_.23if_0_rather_than_comments_to_temporarily_kill_blocks_of_code
http://technopark02.blogspot.com/2005/06/cc-conditional-compilation-and-if-0.html
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/cpreprocessor.html

Hope this helps.