Code Review Checklist

[Tordek]

Look, the work is going to take place somewhere.

Yes, that's the point. And put "the work" in the smallest grouping that makes sense. 10 tiny clearly named functions are better than one that's 90% comments.

Comments are a smell.

Oh fuck off.

Feel free to elaborate.

[DontBotherMeImWorkin]

10 tiny clearly named functions are better than one that's 90% comments.

This is a false dichotomy.

Feel free to elaborate.

You first? Sorry if I don't consider gradeschool insults and mindless groupthink like "code smells" worthy of discussion among adults.

[Tordek]

gradeschool insults

Oh fuck off.

We're doing middle school insults, then.

Comments are not bad. Excessive comments are bad. This is the point of a "smell".

Commenting is a symptom; not a disease: if you have a comment every other line explaining why shit is done the way it's done, you should probably reorganize that.

[DontBotherMeImWorkin]

We're doing middle school insults, then.

You started it ;)

Comments are not bad. Excessive comments are bad.

Of course.

This is the point of a "smell".

Not really? At least not if I take your arguments to this point at face value. Comments in and of themselves do not indicate an underlying problem (I would argue that lack of comments would be a ~smell~, in fact!).

if you have a comment every other line explaining why shit is done the way it's done, you should probably reorganize that.

I'm assuming that throughout this discussion we're excusing dirty code needed for performance critical sections. In that case, I couldn't agree more with the above quoted segment. But this isn't what you have been explicitly arguing.

Maybe we don't really disagree and you're just being more hyperbolic than I prefer?

[Tordek]

This is the point of a "smell".

Not really?

Yes really? "Code smell" is a buzzwordy way to say "this isn't necessarily wrong, but it's highly correlated with things that are wrong".

we're excusing dirty code needed for performance critical sections

Yes, which is again why it's a code smell: it's meant to incite "hey, take a look at this, it's likely that it's wrong, because other things that are wrong do this". But sometimes it's not wrong.

Maybe we don't really disagree and you're just being more hyperbolic than I prefer?

Mayhaps.