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If you are creating code that
nobody else will ever have to use or modify, then you're right -
commenting that code would be a waste of your time. But when I starting posting about code comments, I had in mind code that is a commercial or at least public item.
Comments in that kind of code are your explanations to the next guy who has to deal with that code. Obviously if you are even halfway competent, you don't need comments to understand what you wrote last week. But when you get run over by a bus and your job is taken by a guy with only half your experience, that guy will need help. This is something that I find common among programmers; an inability or refusal to understand that they are not immoral and neither is their tenure in the job. Comments in code you write are not a memory aid for you, they're supposed to be guidance for the next guy who has to maintain what you started, to minimize his ramp-up time.
________________________________
From: phil stokes <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com>
To: Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca>
Cc: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2013 10:05 AM
Subject: Re: Commenting Code (was Re: An interview question)
I don't see why professional coders (I'm not one; I'm still a hobbyist)
would or should bother with them. I don't use them for the three or four
languages I know well. For others, I use them less in inverse proportion to
my mastery of the syntax.
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