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Auto Code Commenting Software, Free Chairs
sien writes "When you think about it, code is usually fairly mundane and simple. Finally someone has come up with a parser and lexer that actually auto-comments code, allowing for vastly more rapid coding. This amazing new tool is called The Commentator and claims to analyse source code as it's being written and insert the necessary code comments. It's absolutely amazing. Also the problem of seating for eXtreme Programming has finally been solved."
That chair is not big enough for some men's asses.
Beauty, this will replace the legions of QA people that used to do my code commenting
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
This is the first funny article of the day. I like the self-importance option. In truth, a tool like this is impossible to actually write, but it would be cool since I never comment my code. But I don't comment for job security and I hate my coworkers. Just kiddin'
"Those that start by burning books, will end by burning men."
I wonder if it will read the code commentary aloud in John Madden's voice for extra money?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Perhaps it will be opposite this year? Picking the true article out of the heaps of really bad fakes?
You don't exist. Go away.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Very good humor! But on a more serious note, this is actually part of the problem with some comments. They duplicate the code. Comments like
// increment i by one
i++;
really slow down the comprehesion level of most competent programers, because they have to filter out a lot of redundacy. Comment on purpose, on the more general function of things, etc. An automated program, could only really comment on the code that was there, and likely in an obvious way.
Not to detract from the marvelous humor of the 'article' but it was a good demonstration of the problem.
Good programmers never comment their code; it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
I've never understood why people do things like this. Why not do something useful: specify what's a valid or invalid value of newHome, say when it should or should not be called. Or just leave it blank if you can't find something useful to say.
Every year slashdot does this, every year people complain. The joke is being fooled into complaining. The joke is people revisit the site like every normal day hoping for it to end and it doesn't. The editors are having a laugh at YOUR expense and you don't even know it.
Relax, go over to Fark, who's random joke page can actually be amusing and read about the Pope being note quite dead yet and come back to Slashdot tomorrow. If you actually miss anything real, you can read it then.
Burn Hollywood Burn
rriiiiigggghhhhtttt, and the tooth fairy created linux
DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
The PHB wants to order these so he has a place to sit while micromanaging.
Best regards.
//TODO: remove this comment
word.
I guess we'd better cancel Sense of Humor Day too, then.
...and it's just not true.
/* FALLTHROUGH */ can tell sourch code analyzers such as Lint some useful information too. (Not to mention the programmer that looks at your code and has to think for a sec "did he mean to leave out the break there?")
Good variable names (class names, function names, etc.) go a long way: they tell you a lot about WHAT the program is doing. (I would argue that they can't always say everything too, but that's another matter.)
However, they don't tell you WHY you are doing what you are doing.
Also, remember there are other reasons for comments besides people reading your code. JavaDoc/Doxygen comments allow documentation to be produced right from the source. Comments such as
Good code doesn't require comments - the variable names should tell you everything you need to know about the program.
You must be the guy that made the database at the last place I worked! The column names were complete sentences, including spaces and punctuation (it had never occurred to me that you could even do that). It was a real bitch to work with. Find the middle ground.