I have used this two or three times in my life but it’s one of those simple (and useful?) hard to forget tricks. It could be useful during tough debugging times.
If you have several lines of code and you want to comment them out, you can use standard multi-line comments (this is for C++, Java, and others):
/*
Component contentArea = getContentArea();
layout.addComponent(contentArea);
layout.setExpandRatio(contentArea, 1);
*/
Notice that you can also “comment out” the first and last lines using single-line comments:
//*
Component contentArea = getContentArea();
layout.addComponent(contentArea);
layout.setExpandRatio(contentArea, 1);
//*/
Now you can comment in and out your code just by removing or typing the first “/”:
CAUTION: Avoid usage in programmers with chronic lava flow disease, including junior and senior developers.