Are JavaScript comments useless?

http://www.zsoltnagy.eu/are-javascript-comments-useless/

by zsolt777 • 11 years ago

11 3 11 years ago

jack9• 11 years ago

I can say, after 20 years that only twice (iirc) have JavaScript comments every been useful to me. Comments, in general, have not shown to be too useful except in very specific problemspaces. The idea that TODO comments "tend to stay in the code" is GOOD. That's the point of a TODO, rather than putting it in the commit message where it will definitely be forgotten. Where there is a passing reference to "cleaning up commits", if your commits are being viewed by anyone else, TODOs tend to get maintained correctly. I'm really not sure where this author is coming from on that.

nness• 11 years ago

Time and time again the argument against commenting is that "good code is self-documenting," which makes perfect sense for those experienced enough to document the code in their heads but I don't think holds the same value for developers who do not have the experience to understand what they're reading.

If you throw junior\graduate programmer into a complicated and mature code-base it will just stiffle their learning.

I'd rather take some time to leave a comment and explain how a method operates, particularly the complicated ones, then block a junior dev (even if it should be obvious after a few minutes of reading for someone else.)

CmonDev• 11 years ago

They help to compensate the lacking type system.

Are JavaScript comments useless?

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