As @avalander
said, as an experienced developer, I don't think the function is hard to read at all.
Skipping the fact that your corrected code is wrong (first pointed by @joelnet
), which is very interesting because it shows that you still not mastering this bit of code.
I also do not think the rewritten function adds more value.
In my opinion, the difficulty of understanding what this one-liner does resides in the "Array.reduce" function.
While it should be understood since it belongs to the language, I tends to find new programmers having difficulties with it because they're not use to see it nor to use it, hence why they don't understand it.
A better demonstration of the KISS principle would have been to see another alternative to .reduce() until it's readable enough to remove this big comment.
A comment is an apology for a poor written code, it's usually better to explain why you do something instead of what.
Fair enough, just keep in mind that documentation is different from comments.
I would just like to add something you might be interested in.
If you wanted your function "longestString" to be available outside of its package as a library function for example, you would want to comment using jsdoc.
More than it allows you to generate an html doc form your code, your IDE knows about jsdoc and can generate friendly popup as you try to use this function.
Have a look at the difference:
Without jsdoc
With jsdoc
To finish, while being old (but definitely not irrelevant) and not JavaScript specific, I invite you to read Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship from Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob).
As @avalander said, as an experienced developer, I don't think the function is hard to read at all.
Skipping the fact that your corrected code is wrong (first pointed by @joelnet ), which is very interesting because it shows that you still not mastering this bit of code.
I also do not think the rewritten function adds more value.
In my opinion, the difficulty of understanding what this one-liner does resides in the "Array.reduce" function.
While it should be understood since it belongs to the language, I tends to find new programmers having difficulties with it because they're not use to see it nor to use it, hence why they don't understand it.
A better demonstration of the KISS principle would have been to see another alternative to .reduce() until it's readable enough to remove this big comment.
A comment is an apology for a poor written code, it's usually better to explain why you do something instead of what.
Disagree about comments. Comments should tell the reader why not how.
The reason there are comments in the first example was because I was applying to a bootcamp and wanted to explain my process to the admissions office.
Fair enough, just keep in mind that documentation is different from comments.
I would just like to add something you might be interested in.
If you wanted your function "longestString" to be available outside of its package as a library function for example, you would want to comment using jsdoc.
More than it allows you to generate an html doc form your code, your IDE knows about jsdoc and can generate friendly popup as you try to use this function.
Have a look at the difference:
Without jsdoc
With jsdoc
To finish, while being old (but definitely not irrelevant) and not JavaScript specific, I invite you to read Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship from Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob).
Cheers !
You might want to change the order of your picture ( first picture showing actully the ' without jsdoc ' and the second showing the ' with jsdoc '
Thanks for pointing this out :)!