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A comment is just a summary of the code in an abstraction that's easier to follow. Let's say you have a simple function which would produce an almost as large c

by woud420 1mo ago

A comment is just a summary of the code in an abstraction that's easier to follow. Let's say you have a simple function which would produce an almost as large comment, yes obviously useless. If the function is large enough, yeah summarizing it as a comment is a good idea. Now you might say, don't write huge functions. Sure I agree, but most codebase or teams are not super disciplined enough. So comments are a compromise.

isqueiros 1mo ago
Comments lie. What's worse, AI trusts the comments and apparent logic (inferred from identifiers and whatnot) more than the actual logic. You can quickly get into a mess of stale comments. What's worse, the LLM can sometimes just spit out garbage that poisons the context of the next agent. I disallow comments from my LLM for that last reason.
- woud420 1mo ago
  Code can "lie" too. ```auto a = 65535 + 1``` will give you a different answer depending on the architecture. You can then decide.. oh don't use auto or don't use c++ or whatever and have standards... like the standard you set for yourself "disallow comments from my LLM".
enraged_camel 1mo ago
>> A comment is just a summary of the code in an abstraction that's easier to follow. I disagree. The code already tells you what it does. A summary has low value. Comments should be for explaining the why: the reason the function uses a particular algorithm even if it's a bit slower, or why the return format is an unconventional shape or contains redundant bits. This is so that someone coming in later (either a human or agent) doesn't get confused or think that the function needs refactoring. Summary comments have ended up as the bane of my existence everywhere I've worked, for one simple reason: they go stale and there's no way to prevent it from happening.
- woud420 1mo ago
  That's your experience and it's valid. For me documentation AND comments have been useful on occasion. The core thing that I agree with is that comments (or docs) can get stale and not follow what is actually being executed. The way I work with it is by being structured, consistent and follow standards. Unfortunately for me, not all developers follow the same guidelines.

by woud420 1mo ago

isqueiros 1mo ago

Comments lie. What's worse, AI trusts the comments and apparent logic (inferred from identifiers and whatnot) more than the actual logic. You can quickly get into a mess of stale comments. What's worse, the LLM can sometimes just spit out garbage that poisons the context of the next agent. I disallow comments from my LLM for that last reason.

woud420 1mo ago
Code can "lie" too. ```auto a = 65535 + 1``` will give you a different answer depending on the architecture. You can then decide.. oh don't use auto or don't use c++ or whatever and have standards... like the standard you set for yourself "disallow comments from my LLM".

enraged_camel 1mo ago

>> A comment is just a summary of the code in an abstraction that's easier to follow. I disagree. The code already tells you what it does. A summary has low value. Comments should be for explaining the why: the reason the function uses a particular algorithm even if it's a bit slower, or why the return format is an unconventional shape or contains redundant bits. This is so that someone coming in later (either a human or agent) doesn't get confused or think that the function needs refactoring. Summary comments have ended up as the bane of my existence everywhere I've worked, for one simple reason: they go stale and there's no way to prevent it from happening.

woud420 1mo ago
That's your experience and it's valid. For me documentation AND comments have been useful on occasion. The core thing that I agree with is that comments (or docs) can get stale and not follow what is actually being executed. The way I work with it is by being structured, consistent and follow standards. Unfortunately for me, not all developers follow the same guidelines.