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I worked for a place that had drunk the kool-aid about comments being evil so hard that essentially none were allowed, ever. The reason given was frequently "i

I worked for a place that had drunk the kool-aid about comments being evil so hard that essentially none were allowed, ever. The reason given was frequently "it distracts the brain when reading the code. It makes reading the code take longer." I'm sure whatever effect the very occasional one line comment has on reading speed is negligible. When someone cherry picks something someone said once at a conference and forces it on everyone with dogma, you're not going to get good results.

convolvatron 8y ago
I generally agree with comments being evil. however I tend to just automatically skip any comments when reading code, so its not the end of the world. what I dont understand is after all this time we dont have a richer framework for code metadata. all of those design, commit, review and issue discussions are basically lost once they are closed. they should be indexed together. there's no reason why we cant use tooling to make this problem not just go away, but be substantially better for everyone.
- rmorey 8y ago
  > a richer framework for code metadata I believe SourceGraph (sourcegraph.org) is working on exactly this
  - sqs 8y ago
    Sourcegraph CEO here. Thanks for mentioning us! BTW, we are Sourcegraph.com (not .org...we will see who's squatting on that domain). And our plan for doing this (high-level) is https://about.sourcegraph.com/plan https://about.sourcegraph.com/plan.
    - whalabi 8y ago
      Very interesting work! I'm a big proponent of intelligent tools with development. I've encountered developers who look down their noses at people who use IDEs and their features, seeing it as somehow proving their lack of ability. My argument is we're in the business of writing software. We should believe in the ability of software to make things better, including software development. Also, I've often had a feeling that we could be doing more with our tools, different ways of viewing code to assist in understanding it and editing it. I think developer experience is almost as important as user experience at the end of the day. And that UXers who understand coding should be hard at work making our tools incredible to use. So best of luck with your mission!

convolvatron 8y ago

I generally agree with comments being evil. however I tend to just automatically skip any comments when reading code, so its not the end of the world. what I dont understand is after all this time we dont have a richer framework for code metadata. all of those design, commit, review and issue discussions are basically lost once they are closed. they should be indexed together. there's no reason why we cant use tooling to make this problem not just go away, but be substantially better for everyone.

rmorey 8y ago
> a richer framework for code metadata I believe SourceGraph (sourcegraph.org) is working on exactly this
- sqs 8y ago
  Sourcegraph CEO here. Thanks for mentioning us! BTW, we are Sourcegraph.com (not .org...we will see who's squatting on that domain). And our plan for doing this (high-level) is https://about.sourcegraph.com/plan https://about.sourcegraph.com/plan.
  - whalabi 8y ago
    Very interesting work! I'm a big proponent of intelligent tools with development. I've encountered developers who look down their noses at people who use IDEs and their features, seeing it as somehow proving their lack of ability. My argument is we're in the business of writing software. We should believe in the ability of software to make things better, including software development. Also, I've often had a feeling that we could be doing more with our tools, different ways of viewing code to assist in understanding it and editing it. I think developer experience is almost as important as user experience at the end of the day. And that UXers who understand coding should be hard at work making our tools incredible to use. So best of luck with your mission!