Why does python use unconventional triple-quotation marks for comments?

Question

Why didn\'t python just use the traditional style of comments like C/C++/Java uses:

/**
 * Comment lines 
 * More comment lines
 */

// line comments
// line         


        

Answer 1

Guido - the creator of Python, actually weighs in on the topic here: https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/112670605505077248?lang=en

In summary - for multiline comments, just use triple quotes. For academic purposes - yes it technically is a string, but it gets ignored because it is never used or assigned to a variable.