this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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Programmer Humor

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[–] philm 12 points 1 year ago (43 children)

Yeah, but unironic...

If your code needs comments, it's either because it's unnecessarily complex/convoluted, or because there's more thought in it (e.g. complex mathematic operations, or edge-cases etc.). Comments just often don't age well IME, and when people are "forced" to read the (hopefully readable) code, they will more likely understand what is really happening, and the relevant design decisions.

Good video I really recommend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf7vDBBOBUA

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

and if you need an unnecessarily complex code for performance sake?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's a comment for you to explain the why.

Rule of thumb: code explains the how and what, comments explain the why.

[–] philm 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah that's a good summary

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