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The title's a little odd, unless it was to grab attention. It's saying "Why [I use] 'not comments'", not asking "why not comments?" A "not comment" here is an e

The title's a little odd, unless it was to grab attention. It's saying "Why [I use] 'not comments'", not asking "why not comments?" A "not comment" here is an explanation of why the programmer didn't choose the obvious approach. I agree: that's a very valuable thing to document for the next person. For instance, you might write something like: # I used a bubble sort instead of a quick sort here because # the constraint above this guarantees there will never be # more than 5 items, so it's faster to use the naive # algorithm than to implement a more complex algorithm that # involves more branching. or # Normally we'd do X, but that broke customer Y's use case # based on their interpretation of our API docs which we # had kind of messed up. So now we do Y because it works # under both interpretations, at least until we can get # them to upgrade. Basically, tell your audience why you're not using the expected method. It's not because you didn't know about it, but because you do know and you've determined that it's not a good fit for this use case.

lkrubner 2y ago
The problem with the title is simply that the English language allows open compound words. I know many Germans wonder why we allow this. Germans push the words together, for clarity. I've suggested that we use hyphens. Hyphens feel natural in English, and could remove the ambiguity that exists whenever we use open compound words (that is, open-compound-words). In this case "not-comments" would have added clarity. Likewise, the title "World's longest DJ set" was confusing, because most people will assume that the compound word is "DJ-set". But if you read the whole article, then you realize that a python snake fell on the mixing board and accidentally mixed some tunes. So the compound word was actually "longest-DJ" -- a 2.5 meter python. We should all consider using hyphens for all compound words. https://x.com/krubner/status/1828155852773113942 https://x.com/krubner/status/1828155852773113942
- BobaFloutist 2y ago
  I think the "Longest DJ Set" was intentional wordplay.
  - thayne 2y ago
    As was the title of this article.
- aidenn0 2y ago
  As always, there's a relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/37/ https://xkcd.com/37/
- shiroiushi 2y ago
  >I've suggested that we use hyphens. Hyphens feel natural in English, and could remove the ambiguity that exists whenever we use open compound words We do use hyphens in English. Well, some of the time, and some of us. I could be wrong, but I do feel that, given my age and also my readings of older texts, that the use of hyphens in this way has become less common, and that this was much more common decades ago to avoid ambiguity.
- Tainnor 2y ago
  "longest DJ" isn't a compound, it's a noun modified by an adjective, and as such it would be written as two different words in German as well ("längster DJ").
thayne 2y ago
I think the title is intentionally ambiguous. Because the article is a rebuttal to those who oppose writing comments (that is where "why not comments" means "why you shouldn't write comments") where the main argument is that you should write "why not" comments (that is "why not comments" means write comments explaining why you didn't do something or do something a certain way).

lkrubner 2y ago

The problem with the title is simply that the English language allows open compound words. I know many Germans wonder why we allow this. Germans push the words together, for clarity. I've suggested that we use hyphens. Hyphens feel natural in English, and could remove the ambiguity that exists whenever we use open compound words (that is, open-compound-words). In this case "not-comments" would have added clarity. Likewise, the title "World's longest DJ set" was confusing, because most people will assume that the compound word is "DJ-set". But if you read the whole article, then you realize that a python snake fell on the mixing board and accidentally mixed some tunes. So the compound word was actually "longest-DJ" -- a 2.5 meter python. We should all consider using hyphens for all compound words. https://x.com/krubner/status/1828155852773113942 https://x.com/krubner/status/1828155852773113942

BobaFloutist 2y ago
I think the "Longest DJ Set" was intentional wordplay.
- thayne 2y ago
  As was the title of this article.
aidenn0 2y ago
As always, there's a relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/37/ https://xkcd.com/37/
shiroiushi 2y ago
>I've suggested that we use hyphens. Hyphens feel natural in English, and could remove the ambiguity that exists whenever we use open compound words We do use hyphens in English. Well, some of the time, and some of us. I could be wrong, but I do feel that, given my age and also my readings of older texts, that the use of hyphens in this way has become less common, and that this was much more common decades ago to avoid ambiguity.
Tainnor 2y ago
"longest DJ" isn't a compound, it's a noun modified by an adjective, and as such it would be written as two different words in German as well ("längster DJ").

thayne 2y ago

I think the title is intentionally ambiguous. Because the article is a rebuttal to those who oppose writing comments (that is where "why not comments" means "why you shouldn't write comments") where the main argument is that you should write "why not" comments (that is "why not comments" means write comments explaining why you didn't do something or do something a certain way).