[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by Mark Pierce

quote:
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Originally posted by Melancholy
Not quite engineering, and not quite a slogan, but my Computer Science teacher said this on the first day of class.

"The purpose of commenting is that if you get fired, or hit by a bus, someone else can finish your program!"

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I can really appreciate the comments on this by Kieth and Mike.

As a software engineer for over 20 years, I think I'm safe in saying that this is an engineering slogan. Variations on this slogan have been around since the early days of computing. I suspect that even Charles Babbage, and certainly those working with him or studying his work, uttered similar words. The refinements presented here are great!

And don't believe the old myth that you can ensure your job security by making your code as unintelligible as possible (by not commenting, etc.)