C, embedded comments and preprocessors

[lwv27 at CAS.BITNET]

I have not been able to afford a copy of the new ANSI std for c,
and perhaps it clarifies the situation.

I have for some time commented out portions of code by surrounding them by
a construct similar to:
/*
lines of text

lines of code   /*  line comment */

lines of various text's comments

lines of code   /*  line comment */
*/

Today, I found a case where a third party vendor's preprocessor turned
off its idea that it was in a comment.  It did not however complain about
it until it ran into a line like:

lines of various text's comments

at which time it complained that I had started but didnt finish up
a character constant.

Is it common for a preprocessor to disallow embedded comments?

I am not looking for a debate over style, better techniques of how to
do this, etc.  I am just trying to decide if this is a unique
occurance, fairly common, a required behavior by ANSI C stds now, etc.

I do not want to contribute to flame wars on technologically religious
issues ;-[)

--
Larry W. Virden
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