3 ms·

I'm sure I read somewhere that the original comment was intended more along the lines of "this bit isn't going to be on the exam" rather than "this bit is too c

I'm sure I read somewhere that the original comment was intended more along the lines of "this bit isn't going to be on the exam" rather than "this bit is too complex for your feeble brain".

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
But there are absolutely hard places in some code, that mere mortals should change at their peril. Most complex code has some place where it all meets, 6 or 7 constraints and issues in a few lines. Most people aren't in a place to (want to) understand all the issues, and its reasonable and fair to say "Here there be dragons".
jrochkind1 6y ago
Or like when I leave comments "# yes, this is a mess, it's not you it's the code, sorry". The OP says: > Interestingly, years later, Ken Thompson admitted that the reason that it was so hard to wrap your head around what is going on is that it is wrong. The original writers actually got it wrong, it was buggy code -- or kind of accidentally not buggy due to a quirk of the particular architecture it ran on, if I get the gist of what they are explaining, I definitely don't get the details!
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  In a moment of clarity, I once wrote: # If you are reading this, I am so sorry