From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.2 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,f292779560fb8442 X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,30e368bdb3310fe5 X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public X-Google-Thread: f8c65,30e368bdb3310fe5 X-Google-Attributes: gidf8c65,public X-Google-Thread: 10db24,30e368bdb3310fe5 X-Google-Attributes: gid10db24,public X-Google-Thread: fac41,af40e09e753872c X-Google-Attributes: gidfac41,public X-Google-Thread: 1008e3,30e368bdb3310fe5 X-Google-Attributes: gid1008e3,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,30e368bdb3310fe5 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: peter@fourier.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) Subject: Re: Hungarian notation Date: 1996/05/27 Message-ID: <4oattj$408@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 156889286 references: <31999F43.41C67EA6@scn.de> <319D2278.3F9A@netonecom.net> <4nr50r$jo2@ringer.cs.utsa.edu> <4ns02o$ep3@goanna.cs.rmit.EDU.AU> <4o07o9$rfu@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au> <4o1vo3$p2a@news1.ni.net> followup-to: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.modula3,comp.lang.modula2,comp.edu,comp.lang.eiffel organization: The University of Newcastle reply-to: peter@tesla.newcastle.edu.au newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.modula3,comp.lang.modula2,comp.edu,comp.lang.eiffel Date: 1996-05-27T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Andy Ho-Fan Chan (andyc@procom.com) wrote: >In article <4o07o9$rfu@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au>, peter@tesla.newcastle.edu.au wrote: >>I adopted a policy, years ago, of never agreeing to help >>debug badly-documented code. When I'm asked questions like >>"why doesn't my code work", my response is along the lines >>of "come back after you've inserted the comments, and we'll >>look at it then". Half the time they don't come back, >>because they discover the error themselves while debugging >>the comments. >Well, I guess they just don't want to comment the code and don't come to ask >you question anymore. I'm a student in CS, and I know what the students feel. > When the project is dued soon and don't get the program works, do you still >have time to comment to code? No argument with this ... we all know that that's what the students feel. Almost invariably, the reason given for leaving out comments is "I don't have the time". The real question, however, is this: if you have to get something working quickly, do you still have time to NOT comment the code? Or, to put it another way: would you rather spend half an hour getting the comments right, or several days fighting with the debugger? This commenting business is not just an optional extra to make your code look pretty. The main reason for doing a good job on the commenting is that it helps you code a lot _faster_. But many students - particularly the weaker students - never seem to learn this point. Show them the easy way to get the job done, and they'll still stick stubbornly to the hard way. -- Peter Moylan peter@ee.newcastle.edu.au http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/ee/Moylan.html OS/2 freeware list at http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/ee/Moylan/os2/os2info.html