Re: Re: Re: Re**4: Non-English posts on Perlmonks

[Anonymous Monk]

So because some programmers aren't bright enough to maintain their code properly (which includes comments), comments aren't as useful?

Can you (with a straight face) seriously make that argument and say the flexibility of Perl is good in the same sentence?

Obviously if comments are poorly written, and poorly maintained they're not going to help. Same with poorly written and poorly maintained Perl code, but you don't see us stop using Perl do you?

[tilly]

So because some programmers aren't bright enough to maintain their code properly (which includes comments), comments aren't as useful?

You misunderstood my point if you think that this is just an issue of programmer intelligence.

Code has an inherent advantage over comments in that it is actually executed, which means that obvious nonsense (eg syntax errors) is caught immediately and massively improves the chance that other errors (eg stupid thinkos of various kinds) are caught as well. Comments don't get this kind of testing, and so lack this valuable feedback.

Can you (with a straight face) seriously make that argument and say the flexibility of Perl is good in the same sentence?

Yes, I can. A standard solution to the issue that I gave above is to design code so that it is, in so far as possible, a comment on itself. Along this line, quite a few of the syntactic constructs in Perl are present explicitly so that you have a choice about how to say things - and can therefore choose the one which will emphasize to another reader what you mean. (I know that Larry thinks this way because his various speeches and Apocalypses have hit directly on this exact point.)

Therefore the flexibility of Perl is good in part because it assists in addressing the issue above about comments.

Obviously if comments are poorly written, and poorly maintained they're not going to help. Same with poorly written and poorly maintained Perl code, but you don't see us stop using Perl do you?

If you fail to understand the intrinsic maintainance issues that comments have, then I can guarantee that your comments will become poorly maintained.

For a more detailed explanations of what I think about commenting, see Re (tilly) 2 (disagree): Another commenting question,. Unfortunately that discussion was carried out half in posts, and half in private chats. The private chats was a more positive conversation, and I regret that the public record that was left is more negative than it needed to be...