Comments
========

   There are two ways of rendering comments to `as'.  In both cases the
comment is equivalent to one space.

   Anything from `/*' through the next `*/' is a comment.  This means
you may not nest these comments.

     /*
       The only way to include a newline ('\n') in a comment
       is to use this sort of comment.
     */
     
     /* This sort of comment does not nest. */

   Anything from the "line comment" character to the next newline is
considered a comment and is ignored.  The line comment character is `#'
on the Vax; `#' on the i960; `|' on the 680x0; `;' for the AMD 29K
family; `;' for the machine specific family; *note Machine
Dependent::..

   On some machines there are two different line comment characters.
One will only begin a comment if it is the first non-whitespace
character on a line, while the other will always begin a comment.

   To be compatible with past assemblers, a special interpretation is
given to lines that begin with `#'.  Following the `#' an absolute
expression (see Expressions.) is expected:  this will be the
logical line number of the next line.  Then a string (See Strings.)
is allowed: if present it is a new logical file name.  The rest of the
line, if any, should be whitespace.

   If the first non-whitespace characters on the line are not numeric,
the line is ignored.  (Just like a comment.)
                               # This is an ordinary comment.
     # 42-6 "new_file_name"    # New logical file name
                               # This is logical line # 36.
   This feature is deprecated, and may disappear from future versions
of `as'.