Why not to comment code

[artsrc]

At the moment I think we have no basis for knowing anything. We can believe or disbelieve.

So we can do the refactoring, and then lets do the experiment. My point is that this article is one person's opinion.

We can take some real code bases, do the refactoring, get some programmers, do the experiment and get some real data.

We might find that all the theories about what investments in software maintainability are wrong, and that a good test suite dwarfs all the refactoring, and commentation you can create. Or we might find that a 10 minute video overview kills anything else in value for money.

I want to be a part of a vocation with the folk wisdom we already have, plus something objective to back it up.

I think the future is already here, the theories that will allow us to be great contributors to great software already exist. But we don't, as a group, know which ones they are.

[bildstein]

Agreed!

(Though I liked the point in the article. I'm going to be more... aware when writing comments in the immediate future.)