Indeed, ww. I retain enough of my assembly language background that I often keep up a running commentary alongside my code. I find that if I keep the hashmarks lined up, it doesn't detract from my ability to read just the code.

My desire to add these comments, some of which help and some of which are just a PITA distraction, does often conflict with coding standards that say that thou shalt line-wrap at 78. Then again, I don't often use camelCase, either... ;-]

For me, generally, the utility of the commentary outweighs the need to tidy it up every time I edit, because -- as in education -- if you can explain something well you understand it better. I find that switching back and forth from programming language to English language gives me time to consider what I'm doing. It's especially useful to go back and add comments with a cup of coffee after a late-night flow session where I've added a whole bunch of new code.

I'm still looking for the syntax highlighter or literate programming editor that'll let me selectively choose either just code, just comments, or both, but until I find it, I'll keep my left-right code and commentary style.

<DISCLAIMER>
Of course, I'm also the guy who says that two-finger typing helps me write better code because I have time to think between pecks... ;-D
</DISCLAIMER>

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.