A nice feature of Eclipse is that one can start a comment, type a text that spans over several lines and yet avoid typing "// " or " * " before each line. It works as following:
1. Start a new line with a comment like "// " or "/** ".
2. Type until the end of the line and hit return key.
3. The IDE will start a new line with "// " or " * " and an appropriate indent before it to match previous line.
As a result this looks as following (X denotes the position of the next character that will be typed after hitting return key):
class Foo {
{
// This function does nothing really useful, but it has a
// stupid useless comment above it that is only designed
// to be very-very-very-very-very long and span over several
// X
const char * bar() { return "foo"; }
or
class Foo {
{
/**
* This function does nothing really useful, but it has a
* stupid useless comment above it that is only designed
* to be very-very-very-very-very long and span over several
* X
const char * bar() { return "foo"; }
These are only two comment styles that I am using and IMHO the most popular ones. However, one can add support for more styles into the VAX. Also I believe this feature should be configurable, i.e. one should be able to switch it off (or select only some styles that it should be enabled for).