Re: Python

On 12/18/25 13:00, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
> Peter Flass <[email protected]> writes:
>> I comment *A LOT*. When I had to go back and revisit some very old
>> code, I wished I had commented more. I've almost never looked at a
>> program and said "I wish it had fewer comments."
> 
> Regrettably, I’ve encountered plenty of comments that don’t actually
> reflect the code (for a variety of reasons).
> 
> If the code is wrong and the comment is right then that’s great, you
> have a nice hint about how to fix the code, assuming you realize there’s
> a problem at all.

   This is why you don't just blindly cut-n-paste "helpful
   code" you find on the net  :-)

   Often were several versions of it ... but nobody bothered
   to update the comments.

> However if the code is right but the comment is wrong then the comment
> is worse than nothing. The code would be improved by removing it
> (although almost certainly improved even more by correcting it).
> 
> I’ve also encountered quite a few comments written by people who had
> been instructed to add comments to under-commented code, but didn’t
> really understand what they were looking at. The result generally
> obscures more than it illuminates.

   If the actual code WRITER doesn't understand his/her/its
   own code ... that's worrisome.

   As I mentioned to someone else, I've got a Python function
   around somewhere with about SIX lines of actual code and
   over THIRTY lines of comment above it explaining why the
   tricky little devil works.