perlfaq6 - stripping C++ style comments from a file

This FAQ is needlessly obscure, even with Fred Curtis's modifications.

Nobody needs a version which strips just C style comments.  How about 
substituting the attached version which does both C and C++ style?

(The C spec requires /*...*/ to act as white space.  DOS format text 
needs the \r.)

I am placing this code in the public domain.

I think the perl4 version of the code should be omitted, or moved to the 
end if you want to make the "perl5 with /x is more legible" point.

Bill Mann <[email protected]>

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

$/ = undef;			# no line delimiter
$_ = <>;			# read entire file

s! ((['"]) (?: \\. | .)*? \2) | # skip quoted strings
   /\* .*? \*/ |		# delete C comments
   // [^\n\r]*			# delete C++ comments
 ! $1 || ' '			# change comments to a single space
 !xseg; 			# ignore white space, treat as single line
				# evaluate result, repeat globally
print;