3 ms·
Yes, but there are other ways to make it more understandable (like good names, idiomatic code, units that are neither too long nor too short) that are often pre
by Scarblac 9mo ago
Yes, but there are other ways to make it more understandable (like good names, idiomatic code, units that are neither too long nor too short) that are often preferable, because comments always have a danger of going out of sync with the code.
The "why" is the part of the explanation that can't be deduced from the code.
- croes 9mo agoSometimes good names etc. don’t help. Think of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root That definitely needs a what comment.
- Scarblac 9mo agoYes of course, sometimes there is no understandable way to write the code and comments are the best way. But there's also the case to be made that the comments that particular code needs are "why" comments. I can see what happens, but why does it work?
- croes 9mo agoWhy does it work or why was the code written? The article mentions the reason for the code which I would expect in the commit message