this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Programmer Humor

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[–] magic_lobster_party@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Comments should only be used to describe stuff that’s otherwise difficult to convey with code.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The best explanation I've ever heard is:

Comments should state the 'Why' never the 'What'.

[–] hikaru755@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

There are some cases though where the code is just complicated for reasons outside of your control, in which case "what" comments are good - but they should never be taken at face value, but only used as a first step in understanding the code. There's a significant risk of the code not actually doing what the comment says.

[–] dukk@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah. Most of the time I use comments in my algorithms, as they often use some weird optimized black magic which are difficult to understand without comments.

[–] DoomBot5@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Like don't set this value to the obvious default. Bad stuff happens