I dont understand what's the problem with comments anyway. So what if we have comments peppered through the code? Do they slow down processing in any significant way? Yes, they cause the files to be somewhat larger, but if all that means is a bit more disk space gets used, so what? If they reduce maintenance cost because its quicker for other developers to maintain the code later on, that must surely more than offset any overhead due to the existence of comments.
I get that the tests in TDD are a good way to see what's happening (or supposed to happen) in code. But whats the problem if there are comments in there too? (Assuming they're accurately reflecting what's going on in the code - if they're misleading because they reflect old or trial versions of the logic, that's bad but none of us is talking about that are we?) I just dont understand why this is even a discussion in the first place. As someone who often has to work on code that others have built before me (and normally aren't around to ask questions of) I can testify that comments make any program file MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to work on. As I said earlier in this thread, I once had to work on a 1500 line convoluted file, with nested <cfif clientiD = peppered through it, just to change some text being displayed. It took me hours to find the exact line I had to correct because it wasnt every instance of the text in the file, but only one that had to be changed. It certainly didn't justify spending ages and ages looking through the whole logic of the application just to make a little tweak. A few comments here or there would have meant it cost the client a fraction of what I billed him for my time for that little job, then i could have got on to another much more important job he wanted done. You dont want comments in your code? I get that. Dont know why you dont, but I get it. But I'm a contractor who does a lot of temp work on existing code bases not written by me. I know I go a lot faster when I have comments I can read. Yes, I can read code, and I can write code. But the comments make it a LOT faster for me to work out what I'm working on and how to make the change I'm asked to do. Cheers Mike Kear Windsor, NSW, Australia Adobe Certified Advanced ColdFusion Developer AFP Webworks http://afpwebworks.com ColdFusion 9 Enterprise, PHP, ASP, ASP.NET hosting from AUD$15/month On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 2:04 AM, James Holmes <james.hol...@gmail.com> wrote: > > That's misrepresenting the thread. This is more accurate: > > Me: Don't use comments, use tests. > Cutter: Noobs can't read tests > Me: That's why we pair program. > Michael: What do *you* do if all the developers who worked on the project > are long gone? > You: Read the tests. (implication; I'm not a noob). > > -- > Shu Ha Ri: Agile and .NET blog > http://www.bifrost.com.au/ > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:350182 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
