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How programmers comment their code (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 4 months ago by Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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https://nitter.poast.org/denicmarko/status/1774077890281267451

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[-] Aux@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago

Hard disagree - that's just dumb:

// Calculates tax
function calculateTax() { }

[-] uis@lemm.ee 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Hard disagree - that's very helpful:

// Calculates Personal Income Tax by formula from section 1.2.3 of tax code. Other taxes like VAT are not calculated.
function calculateTax() { }

[-] potustheplant@feddit.nl 5 points 4 months ago

This guy gets it.

[-] Aux@lemmy.world -4 points 4 months ago

If it calculates personal income tax, just call calculatePersonalIncomeTax.

[-] uis@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Why not calculatePersonalIncomeTax123 then?

[-] usernamefactory@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago

I'm a new developer. Is that referring to page 123 of the in-house documentation? Version 12.3 of the code? I have no clue.

You'd have to call it something like calculatePersonalIncomeTaxPerTaxCodeSection1_2_3, but I get exhausted just looking at that. There comes a point where the cognitive work of reading crazy long camel case names is more trouble than it's worth.

An explanation of what specification a function was written to implement is a perfectly appropriate comment. Could be improved by a direct link where possible. But it's worth noting what that comment isn't doing - specifying any implementation details. For that, I really can just read the code.