What does //**/ mean?

c, c89

Solution

That's a division, followed by an empty comment. In C99 mode, it's a new-style comment, causing a syntax error because there's no division operator now.

Problem

I have got snippet of old c-code with that lines (result is just slash sign): ``` putchar('/' //**/ 1 / 1 /'\1'); ``` Can anyone explain this snippet? What does this symbols mean? P.S. By the way it compiles well with std=c89 flag in gcc, but not with std=c99.

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