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A good alternative is code without comments that communicates just as well as that code without the comments. Not necessarily better but less likely to slip out

A good alternative is code without comments that communicates just as well as that code without the comments. Not necessarily better but less likely to slip out of sync with the comments upon change.

jedberg 3y ago
I'm a big fan of self documenting code, but especially when I'm doing quick and dirty projects for myself, where I value speed and cleverness over correctness, the comments really help. Especially when it comes to explaining past me's cleverness.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- majikandy 3y ago
  Yes I was only really referencing production long lived code. Mostly I’m a big fan of quick and dirty being something that doesn’t really exist. I believe in quick and throwaway and quick and single/multi use. Comments are fine, just the original suggestion I was referencing sounded like they were a priority.
Mawr 3y ago
It's not an alternative, you can't obviate the need for comments with code. What you're supposed to do is write the code as clearly as possible and then add comments for anything you couldn't manage to express in the code. Usually that'd be all the context around why the code is the way it is and isn't the way it isn't.
- majikandy 3y ago
  I’m just suggesting that the comments are the last resort, the same as you say there. For me, the test names cover the why.
  - jedberg 3y ago
    What tests?
npteljes 3y ago
>A good alternative is code without comments that communicates just as well as that code without the comments. Now this is something I could never do. Or find in other people's code. I much rather appreciate the good comment explaining to me WTF is going on, annotating the larger segments, and so on. Of course it might just be my personal limitation as a programmer that's far from the best in the craft. But to me, comments are the most time tested.
bccdee 3y ago
"A good alternative to a car with seat belts is a car without seat belts that is nevertheless equally safe." There's lots of important information that comments can convey which code itself cannot. In particular, a program's code can tell you how it works but not why it was designed to work that way. And after a point, even trying to convey too much information about how a program works through code can be cumbersome. We've all seen function names that are way too long, because the author wanted to cram way too much information into it. That extra information should have been put into a comment, where the author could have articulated it clearly, instead of as a single overlong compound verb in camel case.

A good alternative is code without comments that communicates just as well as that code without the comments. Not necessarily better but less likely to slip out of sync with the comments upon change.

jedberg 3y ago

I'm a big fan of self documenting code, but especially when I'm doing quick and dirty projects for myself, where I value speed and cleverness over correctness, the comments really help. Especially when it comes to explaining past me's cleverness.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
majikandy 3y ago
Yes I was only really referencing production long lived code. Mostly I’m a big fan of quick and dirty being something that doesn’t really exist. I believe in quick and throwaway and quick and single/multi use. Comments are fine, just the original suggestion I was referencing sounded like they were a priority.

Mawr 3y ago

It's not an alternative, you can't obviate the need for comments with code. What you're supposed to do is write the code as clearly as possible and then add comments for anything you couldn't manage to express in the code. Usually that'd be all the context around why the code is the way it is and isn't the way it isn't.

majikandy 3y ago
I’m just suggesting that the comments are the last resort, the same as you say there. For me, the test names cover the why.
- jedberg 3y ago
  What tests?

npteljes 3y ago

>A good alternative is code without comments that communicates just as well as that code without the comments. Now this is something I could never do. Or find in other people's code. I much rather appreciate the good comment explaining to me WTF is going on, annotating the larger segments, and so on. Of course it might just be my personal limitation as a programmer that's far from the best in the craft. But to me, comments are the most time tested.

bccdee 3y ago

"A good alternative to a car with seat belts is a car without seat belts that is nevertheless equally safe." There's lots of important information that comments can convey which code itself cannot. In particular, a program's code can tell you how it works but not why it was designed to work that way. And after a point, even trying to convey too much information about how a program works through code can be cumbersome. We've all seen function names that are way too long, because the author wanted to cram way too much information into it. That extra information should have been put into a comment, where the author could have articulated it clearly, instead of as a single overlong compound verb in camel case.