this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2024
157 points (97.0% liked)
Programmer Humor
32054 readers
1849 users here now
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
Rules:
- Posts must be relevant to programming, programmers, or computer science.
- No NSFW content.
- Jokes must be in good taste. No hate speech, bigotry, etc.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
As mentioned in my other comment, names will rarely explain the reasons why a given solution was chosen. These reasons are important from maintenance perspective and should be recorded next to the relevant code.
I agree, and I count that as “key information that’s difficult to understand from the code”.
IMO, comments should be used to provide value to the code. If they’re used too much, then readers of the code will more likely stop reading them altogether. They already got what they need from the code itself and the comments usually don’t add much value.
If they’re sparse, then that’s a good indication they’re important and shouldn’t be missed.
I definitely agree that too many comments is often a bad sign, esp. when large part of them is obviously generated.