Moan: Commenting while programming

Att: Microsoft, Oracle, Sun
CC: WWC, Google (they're in on anything, so why not CC them? At the very least they'll get a chuckle out of it)

Subject: Programming comments

Dear Sirs/Madams,

If you can find some time in your undoubtedly busy schedules, would it be possible for you to discuss a universal combination of characters to note a line or block of text within code as comment, please?


As a programmer, I love commenting my code. It makes it easy for me to identify what bits of code do, to indicate why I used a certain approach, and my peers will get the same benefits. All in all, comments are our friends.

However, I have never understood the reason for having numerous ways to define comments. For instance, see the following snippets:

Visual Basic:
' This is a comment. Start the line with an apostrophe.

C# / Java:
// This is a comment.

SQL / C# / Java / Oracle:
/* This is a comment block */

SQ: / Oracle:
-- This is a comment

HTML:
<% -- This is a comment -- %>

Etc.

Could it be arranged so that there is one standard approach that works in every language? It would make things so much easier for those of us who regularly switch between languages/flavours.

Kthanks.

My next moan will demand we get the exact same syntax, too ;)