DEV Community

Discussion on: Comments Are The Only "Code Smell"

 
merri profile image
Vesa Piittinen • Edited

Maybe I've had bad experiences or bad luck, but I've noticed comments to be rather ineffective against "refactoring". You need only one person with too strong an opinion and less experience who successfully ignores what the comment warns or informs about, and goes ahead changing and breaking things.

Code reviews don't perfectly protect against this as those may get through by another who doesn't stop to care about the comment, possibly because it doesn't appear in the diff. Only tests seem to successfully protect against this, at least against breaking stuff. You'd have to go for slightly malicious mindset to start removing or changing valid tests. These "refactors" are often done thinking it is an improvement, with no malicious intent.

This is one reason why I keep comments as the absolute last tool to convey understanding that the code or naming things can't provide.