Again, it's all a matter of taste, but

When I first set about trying to understand a piece of code, I generally ignore the comments and have even written several macros to remove them. Too many times I have been coersed into believing them when they only reflected the orginators intentions and not his actions. This can happen easily enough from reading the variable names as I said elsewhere today, but generally the authors actions are more clearly indicated by the code than by comments which all too frequently become out of date and therefore worse than just redundant, they can be misleading.

Of course, a comment warning of an unusually conveluted algorithm or indicating where (for example) additional punctuation is critical to the correct interpretation of the code are necessary and helpful. I also find it helpful if the coder indicates why s/he did certain unusual or unituative things in a particular way. Beyond that, I generally feel that most comments in code are redundant and serve only to obscure the forest with trees.

An untypical, and probably unpopular opinion, but one I have arrived at through bitter experience.


Okay you lot, get your wings on the left, halos on the right. It's one size fits all, and "No!", you can't have a different color.
Pick up your cloud down the end and "Yes" if you get allocated a grey one they are a bit damp under foot, but someone has to get them.
Get used to the wings fast cos its an 8 hour day...unless the Govenor calls for a cyclone or hurricane, in which case 16 hour shifts are mandatory.
Just be grateful that you arrived just as the tornado season finished. Them buggers are real work.


In reply to Re: Re: Perl Programming guidelines/rules by BrowserUk
in thread Perl Programming guidelines/rules by hakkr

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