docs: def removeComments(element):
      """
         Removes comments from the element and its children.
      """
      global _num_bytes_saved_in_comments
      num = 0
  
      if isinstance(element, xml.dom.minidom.Comment):
          _num_bytes_saved_in_comments += len(element.data)
          element.parentNode.removeChild(element)
          num += 1
      else:
          for subelement in element.childNodes[:]:
              num += removeComments(subelement)
  
      return num