Re: Encouraging good comments Which language ?

[Petite Abeille <petite.abeille@...>]

On Jan 30, 2012, at 10:14 AM, Axel Kittenberger wrote:

> I have a grudge against the usual coders arguments "good code does not
> need to be commented, because it explains itself", pah! A single
> *english* line per function/file that explains what the function does
> or what the collection in this file is for makes diving into a source
> base so much easier.

Perhaps this is more a question of cost vs. benefit: 

(1) Who are the comments intended for? 
(2) Who benefit from them?
(3) Who pay the cost of writing and maintaining them?

Not really a technical issue, more of a social/organization one.

This question about "comments" and who should pay for them, vs. who benefits from them, reminds me of Cory Doctorow rant about metadata:

Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia
http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm

Replace "metadata" with "code comment" and see how it works out for you :D

Commentcrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the comment-utopia