Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: rbowman Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.advocacy,sci.physics Subject: Re: ## is a godsend. Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2021 19:35:49 -0600 Lines: 31 Message-ID: References: <6Ol6J.138403$lC6.93258@fx41.iad> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net 8lyeDFEexrUjhc+HMDCuQwNFtGCAWWVOUFyrdKVeDHpkrV6Lr9 Cancel-Lock: sha1:TUXv7hU3Rp+MDO3FIY41jxtlF18= User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.6.0 In-Reply-To: <6Ol6J.138403$lC6.93258@fx41.iad> Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.setup:4712 comp.os.linux.advocacy:595231 sci.physics:833654 On 10/03/2021 11:31 AM, Charlie Gibbs wrote: > On 2021-10-02, rbowman wrote: > >> On 10/01/2021 10:29 PM, Jeff-Relf.Me@. wrote: >> >>> ## is a godsend. From "z1.CPP" in "Jeff-Relf.Me/z1.ZIP": >> >> As I was saying, clever programmers can use # and ## to create >> completely obfuscated and unmaintainable code. >> >> I don't recall who said it but the gist of the statement was if you use >> every last ounce of your cleverness creating the code you ain't got shit >> left when it comes to debugging it. > > Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a > program in the first place. So if you're as clever as you > can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it? > > -- Brian Kernighan: The Elements of Programming Style > > I make liberal use of comments to explain what is going on. > The more convoluted the code, the more detailed the comments. > Remember, you're not just writing comments for the benefit of > the next person to maintain the code; you're writing them for > yourself six months down the road, when you've forgotten exactly > what you did and why you did it. > Thank you. I suspected it was Kernighan or Ritchie but was too lazy to chase down the quote. I did not want to add to the internet misattributions.