Screwtape at
They needed a reserved character to begin a comment, I guess they figured it would be easier to say hash-space begins a comment and hash-equals begins a reference, than to have multiple reserved characters for different purposes.
On the other hand, I don't recall the spec describing what should happen with hash-followed-by-any-other-character, so that's a potential interoperability hazard, right there.
clacke@libranet.de ❌, clacke@libranet.de ❌, Charles Stanhope likes this.