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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,fc52c633190162e0 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local01.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:25:31 -0500 From: tmoran@acm.org Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: commenting, was Re: Use of declare blocks References: <1174645259.9435.22.camel@localhost.localdomain> X-Newsreader: Tom's custom newsreader Message-ID: Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:25:31 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.164.83.70 X-Trace: sv3-4x8Gzc3zA848CE+BLhYoONIg4VwleHZ1L1SwS7oAOkICssNxtat2PavuQXbutWaOeCUQIh5gfBD2EXA!0kF2ovARH6uMXjv7YG3cFxbWqtJ3cv9SHWESdcxp8NZFeVsZaO3yLRcs+LT5/gj2+ESSGL8mpfRR!QMOINj+8vJ5QL1uTBpVcnrVZDFLh X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.34 Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:14611 Date: 2007-03-23T13:25:31-05:00 List-Id: > even when their meaning seemed obvious to me. In particular, when their > meaning seemed obvious. As you say, it won't stay obvious, and > the programmer's knowledge at the time of writing is lost with > the missing comment and has to be regained. I'd like comments that are fuller as the code gets older. I've long wanted a system that each day would find those files that are, say, two days old and it would ask me to either delete or give a (very) short description (but longer than an 8.3 file name!). Files that haven't been accessed in two weeks would either be deleted or it would require me to give a somewhat longer description. Similarly after two months, with a description that would make sense two years from now. This would have to be system-enforced, since I can't bring myself to do it manually (and sometimes it isn't clear how long certain files will continue to exist anyway). It would be nice to do something similar with source code and comments.