Re: [Gaim-devel] Questions about comments in source files

[Eduardo <ep...@us...>]

On 2004-08-04 18:40:27 UTC, Luke Schierer wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 05:46:42PM +0000, Eduardo P=E9rez wrote:
> > I was browsing:
> > gaim/src/main.c
> > and found (for example) a comment like this:
> > /* FUCKING GET ME A TOWEL! */
> > I tracked it to:
> > http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/gaim/gaim/src/Attic/aim.c?r1=3D=
1.165&r2=3D1.166
> > That comment was put by warmenhoven with a log: here you go rob :)
> > at 2001-10-14 05:52:36
> >=20
> > As I'm not American I don't know if that comment has any meaning or
> > that's just a joke.
>=20
> originally a joke, now kept around because we enjoy the reminder of=20
> where we've been.
>=20
> > That comments make difficult for someone to follow gaim code and I
> > advocate to remove them.
>=20
> have you found the dance comment yet? ;-)
>=20
> > It's not a problem for me to have code with bad words but maybe some
> > people can get uncomfortable with that.
>=20
> if i can live with it, anyone should be able to. i think all those who=20
> have felt my rath for unclean language in #gaim should be able to bear=20
> witness to this.=20
>=20
> > I just don't want unuseful comments.
> >=20
> > Would you remove them?
>=20
> no.
>=20
> > Would you accept patches to remove them?
>=20
> no.
>=20
> *shrugs* eric warmenhoven didn't really believe in commenting code, and=
=20
> as you noticed, that dates back to him. things like that, and one of th=
e=20
> broken easter eggs, we keep around in the code because they don't add=20
> that many lines, and thus don't add that much confusion, and they amuse=
=20
> us. this is a hobby, having amusement value is a good thing.  =20
>=20
> more useful comments will be found in the .h files, and the other=20
> documents generated by doxygen.=20

I was just suggesting to have useful comments to help new gaim
developers read gaim code.=20
It's a shame that you don't find it a good idea.
So, new developers will have to accept the unuseful comments and the lack
of useful ones.

Eduardo