# Removing HTML comments

Be sure the XmNenableBadHTMLWarnings resource is set to True before loading this document.

This document should generate three warnings: one for line 37, one for line 53 and one for line 65.

First of all, this is the basic definition of a SGML comment (and since HTML is an SGML application, it is also the definition of a HTML comment):

> A comment declaration starts with <!, followed by zero or more comments, followed by >. A comment starts and ends with "--", and does not contain any occurrence of "--".

Note that an "empty" comment tag, with just "--" characters, should always have a multiple of four "-" characters to be legal. (And yes, <!> is also a legal comment - it's the empty comment).

`<!> the empty comment (zero dashes)`

`<!-- standard comment (four dashes) -->`

`<!-- text -- comment -- end (8 dashes) -->`

`<!-- this is a bad comment -- you see? (6 dashes) -->`

    <!--
    	a comment spanning multiple lines --
    	and it's a correct comment as well (8 dashes) --
    -->

    <!--
    	a comment spanning multiple lines --
    	-- and it's a bad one (10 dashes) --
    -->

    <!---------------- International Sales Offices ---------------------->

    (bad comment, 38 dashes)

(saillant detail: this comment comes straight from a Netscape document...)

a nested comment (8 dashes) -->

    <!----<-->
    	a nested comment (8 dashes) -->

(most browsers I know of get the above comment wrong: the a nested ... will appear twice in them)

hello-->

    <!------> hello-->

(again, most browsers will also get this one wrong: the hello--> will appear twice)

    <!-- a comment - with dashes in between - (4 dashes and *not* 6) -->