28 Feb
2002
28 Feb
'02
3:39 p.m.
"R. D. Davis" <rdd(a)rddavis.org> wrote:
Also, remember that obfuscated code is an art form
that should bring
bonuses and raises to programmers skilled in this art. Besides, a
programmer who can't read so-called "difficult to read code," with no
comments, isn't a real programmer. :-)
No comments? I think you're forgetting the potential of comments as
things whose maintenance is a lesser priority and whose relationship
to the code may therefore differ from the reader's expectations.
-Frank McConnell
1 Mar
1 Mar
1:02 a.m.
What really irks me are comments like this:
--start the loop
while SQL%NOTFOUND LOOP
...
--end the loop
END LOOP;
--assign the value 34 to A
a:=34;
In other words, asanine comments that add no value
whatsoever to an explanation of the purpose of
statements or routines. I would rather have two lines
at the top of a routine explaining what it does and
why than 500 comments like the above. Comments like
these are caused by managers who demand X number of
comments per Y lines of code and/or extremely
egotistical and/or lazy programmers.
As far as write-only code is concerned, I can write
clear, understandable code in many languages; I can
also write absolutely incomprehensible code in those
same languages!
--- Frank McConnell <fmc(a)reanimators.org> wrote:
"R. D. Davis" <rdd(a)rddavis.org>
wrote:
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Also, remember that obfuscated code is an art
form
that should bring
bonuses and raises to programmers skilled in this
art. Besides, a
programmer who can't read so-called
"difficult to
read code," with no
comments, isn't a real programmer. :-)
No comments? I think you're forgetting the
potential of comments as
things whose maintenance is a lesser priority and
whose relationship
to the code may therefore differ from the reader's
expectations.
-Frank McConnell
8:44 a.m.
Quothe Frank McConnell, from writings of Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 09:39:39PM -0800:
No comments? I think you're forgetting the
potential of comments as
things whose maintenance is a lesser priority and whose relationship
to the code may therefore differ from the reader's expectations.
:-)
Another useful thing to do wiht comments is to obfuscate them - for
example, write them in Morse code. Also, it can be useful to have a
program, or script, which strips all *useful* comments from code,
which is ideal for "work for hire" situations; e.g., you want to be
able to read the useful comments for future reference to make your
life easier, but you don't want your employer or cow-orkers to be able
to see them in the copy of the code that they receive, with your copy
of the code saved as an encrypted file.
--
Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
9:15 a.m.
Remind me never to hire you. :-)
--John
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of R. D. Davis
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 17:44 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Write only programming
Quothe Frank McConnell, from writings of Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at
09:39:39PM -0800:
No comments? I think you're forgetting the
potential of comments as
things whose maintenance is a lesser priority and whose relationship
to the code may therefore differ from the reader's expectations.
:-)
Another useful thing to do wiht comments is to obfuscate them - for
example, write them in Morse code. Also, it can be useful to have a
program, or script, which strips all *useful* comments from code,
which is ideal for "work for hire" situations; e.g., you want to be
able to read the useful comments for future reference to make your
life easier, but you don't want your employer or cow-orkers to be able
to see them in the copy of the code that they receive, with your copy
of the code saved as an encrypted file.
--
Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans &
other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're
above Nature &
rdd(a)rddavis.org 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma
to justify such
http://www.rddavis.org beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
11:18 a.m.
example, write them in Morse code. Also, it can be
useful to have a
program, or script, which strips all *useful* comments from code,
This is actually what we did with RT-11. Since the system
could be configured via assembly conditionals, customers
needed the sources... but the binary distribution contained
stripped sources. You only got the comments if you bought
the source kit (but then you also got the sources for all
the utilities and libraries, too).
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
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