Is it necessary to have docblocks start with /** instead of /*

[ProLoser]

Is it necessary to have docblocks start with /** instead of /*

[micmath]

Are you asking if it is possible to write JSDoc comments without following the standard convention of starting with /** and ending with */?

The slash-star-star convention is inherited from javadoc and is also used in other automated API documenters like phpdoc. It's also recognised by code-completers, like certain versions of the Eclipse IDE and others. It's so well established that I would recommend you follow it too, unless you have a very good reason not to.

That said, I once wrote a plugin for JSDoc 3 that would allow you to use a different syntax, and I suppose you could adapt that to handle some other kind of comment if you wanted.

see https://github.com/micmath/jsdoc/blob/master/plugins/commentConvert.js