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Re: The worth of comments

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On 2011-05-27, Irmen de Jong <irmen@-NOSPAM-xs4all.nl> wrote:
> On 27-05-11 15:54, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2011-05-27, Ben Finney<ben+python@benfinney.id.au>  wrote:
>>> Richard Parker<r.richardparker@comcast.net>  writes:
>>>
>>>> On May 26, 2011, at 4:28 AM, python-list-request@python.org wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> My experience is that comments in Python are of relatively low
>>>>> usefulness. (For avoidance of doubt: not *zero* usefulness, merely
>>>>> low.)
>>
>> I've seen plenty of comments who's usefulness was not zero.  It was
>> less than zero.
>
> Someone once taught me, "There is one thing worse than having no 
> comments in the source code: having incorrect (or 'lying') comments
> in the code."
>
> Grant, I guess you hint at such comments?

Yes.  :)

When trying to find a bug in code written by sombody else, I often
first go through and delete all of the comments so as not to be
mislead.

The comments reflect what the author _thought_ the code did
_at_some_point_in_the_past_.  What matters is what the code actually
does at the present.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! ... If I had heart
                                  at               failure right now,
                              gmail.com            I couldn't be a more
                                                   fortunate man!!

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The worth of comments Richard Parker <r.richardparker@comcast.net> - 2011-05-26 11:50 -0700
  Re: The worth of comments Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2011-05-27 11:42 +1000
    Re: The worth of comments Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-27 13:54 +0000
      Re: The worth of comments Irmen de Jong <irmen@-NOSPAM-xs4all.nl> - 2011-05-27 19:05 +0200
        Re: The worth of comments Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-27 17:53 +0000
          Re: The worth of comments Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM@xs4all.nl> - 2011-05-28 15:09 +0200
            Re: The worth of comments python@bdurham.com - 2011-05-28 09:34 -0400
          Re: The worth of comments Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-05-28 09:36 -0400
            Re: The worth of comments Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-29 00:02 +1000
            Re: The worth of comments Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM@xs4all.nl> - 2011-05-28 16:05 +0200
              Re: The worth of comments Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2011-05-29 12:47 +1200
                Re: The worth of comments Ben Finney <ben+python@benfinney.id.au> - 2011-05-29 11:41 +1000
                Re: The worth of comments Gregory Ewing <greg.ewing@canterbury.ac.nz> - 2011-05-29 23:05 +1200
                Re: The worth of comments Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2011-05-29 14:43 +0000
                Re: The worth of comments Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-05-29 11:39 -0400
                Re: The worth of comments Irmen de Jong <irmen.NOSPAM@xs4all.nl> - 2011-05-29 03:49 +0200
                Re: The worth of comments Alister Ware <alister.ware@ntlworld.com> - 2011-05-29 17:26 +0000
            Re: The worth of comments Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2011-05-31 14:47 +0000
  Re: The worth of comments Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-05-26 22:08 -0400
    Re: The worth of comments Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2011-05-27 15:13 +1000
      Re: The worth of comments Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2011-05-27 09:25 -0400
    Re: The worth of comments Tim Roberts <timr@probo.com> - 2011-05-27 00:02 -0700
      Re: The worth of comments "D'Arcy J.M. Cain" <darcy@druid.net> - 2011-05-27 09:29 -0400
    RE: The worth of comments "Prasad, Ramit" <ramit.prasad@jpmchase.com> - 2011-05-27 14:17 -0400

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