Re: Is there a way to do large block of source code comments

[Adam Beneschan <adambeneschan@gmail.com>]

On Monday, September 1, 2014 12:08:21 PM UTC-7, Niklas Holsti wrote:

> One of the worst mistakes in the programming field is the choice of the
> name "comments" for the in-source documentation and description.
> "Comments" suggests something secondary, incidental, unstructured,
> incomplete. 

Which is probably an accurate description of how programmers used them when the term "comment" was first used.

I wouldn't call this a mistake, any more than I'd call it a mistake to refer to a memory dump as a "core dump" or to the program that translates from a high-level language as a "compiler".  [I'm not sure how much the term "core" is used now, but it was certainly used well past the time when ferrite cores all but disappeared.]  None of these terms makes literal sense now, but they made sense when they were introduced, historically, and the terms have stuck around even though their meanings have evolved.  We do need to remember that our terminology, like our programming language syntax and our technology, did not spring forth fully formed from somebody's head.

                                     -- Adam