x = 86400
x = 24 * 60 * 60
DAY_IN_SECONDS = 24 * 60 * 60MINUTES_PER_HOUR = 60;
HOURS_PER_DAY = 24;
DAYS_PER_SECOND = SECONDS_PER_MINUTE * MINUTES_PER_HOUR * HOURS_PER_DAY
Naah.
DAYS_PER_SECOND = 1 / (SECONDS_PER_MINUTE * MINUTES_PER_HOUR * HOURS_PER_DAY) ;
> Examples:
> //Add 1 to x
> x+=1;
If 3/4ths of comments are like this, maybe show a sampling of public source code (e.g. from github) that shows how prevalent comments like this are in any real codebase.
I've been programming since 1982 and have never seen this type of "add 1 to x" comment in real code, outside chapter 1 of some intro to programming book.
I will als name each db table column in the correct order by its correct name right above that what decided the value.
// id
user_id = getUserId();
They serve as dividers.
using namespace std; // using namespace standardThat's the only reason I can think of for writing those comments.
And, you definitely had little experience with under-documented code
Also: if the code and the comments appear to disagree, there is a reasonable likelihood that both are wrong in some way.
I did a survey once in about 3/4 of the comments were either wrong or useless. Examples:
//Add 1 to x
x+=1;
//Add 1 to x
x+=2;
//Seconds per normal day
x = 86400;
--
"Why not" comments are incredibly valuable except they suffer from explanatory decay as much as other comments.
The hope behind Intention Revealing Names is that the dissonance will be too great for the subsequent developers to ignore when they change the code.
Of course, that isn't always true.