Mailinglist Archive


Comments Are More Important Than Code
From:Joe Klemmer
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 06:30:43 -0400

Comments Are More Important Than Code
 From Software Updates
       Vol. 3, No. 2 - March 2005
by Jef Raskin, Independent Consultant

In this essay I take what might seem a paradoxical position. I endorse 
the techniques that some programmers claim make code self-documenting 
and encourage the development of programs that do “automatic 
documentation.” Yet I also contend that these methods cannot provide the 
documentation necessary for reliable and maintainable code. They are 
only a rough aid, and even then help with only one or two aspects of 
documentation—not including the most important ones.

http://acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=printer_friendly&pid=290&page=1