Lisp-style comments

[Jeremy Roussak]

> [much talk of // comments]

Comments beginning // are the standard in BCPL, the language from which C
is supposedly derived.  I think they're rather better (you can't get funny
messages from the compiler by forgetting the closing */, for example).
Does anyone know why those responsible for BCPL's metamorphosis into C
chose to alter this?

On a slightly different note, why did the same people choose to make
BCPL's break and endcase both be called break in C, losing the ability
to break out of loops while inside a case clause?

Jeremy Roussak