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From: "M." <me@home.xx>
Subject: Re: Comments (was: Self-referential types)
Date: 1999/10/23
Message-ID: <XDbQ3.238$wU3.134577@ratbert.tds.net>#1/1
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Date: 1999-10-23T00:00:00+00:00
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Wes Groleau wrote in message <380F2BA5.1EEE15F1@ftw.rsc.raytheon.com>...
>My own view is comments like the following are worse than
>unnecessary, they are pure clutter:
>
>  -- check whether the current transaction is completed
>  if Is_Completed (Current_Transaction) then
>
>     -- if so, close the source and destination DB files
>     DB_IO.Close (Source);
>     DB_IO.Close (Destination);

These are rather benign examples of what I call "duh" comments.  In other
cases, the names are not so descriptive, and the comments refer to these
names, making them especially useless. e.g.:

-- Add 2 to st
st := st + 2;

-- Flibber the Gibbet
Flibber(Gibbet);

Such comments can arise when the programmer writes the comments first, then
the code.  This is a good practice IF the programmer uses it to establish
the semantic requirements of the code, so that it will be easier to write
(and maintain) code that implements them.  "Duh" comments defeat this
purpose by blurring the distinction between semantic requirements and
implementation.

M.