Comment by crazygringo
9 days ago
> Lots of comments in code is a code smell. Yes, really.
No, not really. It's actually a sign of devs who are helping future devs who will maintain and extend the code, so they can understand it faster. It's professionalism and respect.
> If I see lots of comments in code, I'm gonna go looking for the intern who just put up their first PR.
And I'm going to find them to say good job, keep it up! You're saving us time and money in the future.
> It's professionalism and respect.
If someone gives me code full of superfluous comments, I don't consider it professional. Sounds like an intern who felt the need to comment everything because ever single line seemed very complex to them.
Nobody said anything about "superfluous" comments.
I'm assuming "lots of comments" means lots of meaningful comments. As complex code often requires. Nobody's talking about `i++; // increment i` here.
> I'm assuming "lots of comments" means lots of meaningful comments.
That's not what literate programming is. Literate programming says that you explain everything in a natural language.
IMO, good code is largely unsurprising. I don't need comments for unsurprising code. I need comments for surprising code, but that is the exception, not the rule. Literate programming says that it is the rule, and I disagree.
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