Discussion on: Tips on how to comment your code

[tux0r]

That's why you shouldn't have arbitrary variable names (-> good code)...

Imagine the following (pseudo-)Common Lisp code:

(let ((username (get-username-from-database)))
    ;; 35734 lines of other code...
    (do-something-with username))

Chances are that username will be a string - which is obvious even 35734 lines later. When in doubt, you might even prefix it like you would do in strongly typed languages:

int iNumber = 0;
std::string strNumber = "0";

Admittedly, <type>Number is a horrible name for a variable. ;-)

[Sergiu Mureşan]

I fully agree

The problem is that there are times we don't create good code, we create bad code in a hurry and comment it (instead of refactoring it) due to time constraints. Couple that with working in a team of developers and comments become the norm. Unfortunately, we can't base our assumptions that the whole team will make good code and not create ambiguity with their naming.

If you don't work in a team, then by all means, don't use comments, that's what I usually do 99% of the time in my personal side projects.

Believe me, I wish we could simply get away from comments altogether since they:

• Aren't linked to what the code actually does (changing code doesn't change the comment and vice-versa)
• Are mostly boilerplate and sometimes add tons of unnecessary lines in our code.

[tux0r]

Unfortunately, we can't base our assumptions that the whole team will make good code and not create ambiguity with their naming.

It is everyone's responsibility to make a better team. :-)

If you don't work in a team, then by all means, don't use comments, that's what I usually do 99% of the time in my personal side projects.

Ha! Without any comments, I would not understand some of my code after a few months ... but I'm working on it!