INTRODUCTION
Writing code is in many ways comparable to the authorship of any report or other papers. Just as punctuation is required to make sense of written language, programming languages have a similar stylistic requirement. In the same way one might be able to learn one of the romance languages such as French or Spanish and have some structural idea of all the other languages in the same category, the same theory applies to the use and application of programming languages.
The fundamental agreement of a programming language, however does not directly entail the automatic understanding of all programs written in said language. If a developer was to create a program, he presumably knows everything about the code he has written. Every variable …show more content…
The true threshold for understanding is reached when a developer, unacquainted with the code, can make meaningful changes to the code to produce positive results. The speed of understanding can be affected through multiple metrics. For example, measuring how close to a standard format the code adheres will indicate an increased understanding. Fowler (2008) states that there is a direct correlation between the readability of the code and the quality of the developer. He states: “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand” (p. 15). Scalabrino (2016) also mimics a similar sentiment, saying “’readable code’ is a fundamental and highly desirable property of source code” (p. 1). These two authors, among others, show the importance of code readability in the development …show more content…
These comments, when done well, are used to answer the question of ‘why’ the code is required. They are either important to making clear the purpose behind certain sections of code, or providing a summary of the purpose behind the code to which it refers. These bits of information can be vital to explaining complicated sections which are not immediately apparent in the naming of variables and functions. Even though comments provide additional information with regard to the code itself, bad comments can obscure the code even more than not having them at all. As Martin (2012) states, bad comments “are crutches or excuses for poor code or justifications for insufficient decisions, amounting to little more than the programmer talking to himself” (p. 35). Even though comments can be detrimental and cluttering, they are also required to explain why certain actions are
Writing code is in many ways comparable to the authorship of any report or other papers. Just as punctuation is required to make sense of written language, programming languages have a similar stylistic requirement. In the same way one might be able to learn one of the romance languages such as French or Spanish and have some structural idea of all the other languages in the same category, the same theory applies to the use and application of programming languages.
The fundamental agreement of a programming language, however does not directly entail the automatic understanding of all programs written in said language. If a developer was to create a program, he presumably knows everything about the code he has written. Every variable …show more content…
The true threshold for understanding is reached when a developer, unacquainted with the code, can make meaningful changes to the code to produce positive results. The speed of understanding can be affected through multiple metrics. For example, measuring how close to a standard format the code adheres will indicate an increased understanding. Fowler (2008) states that there is a direct correlation between the readability of the code and the quality of the developer. He states: “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand” (p. 15). Scalabrino (2016) also mimics a similar sentiment, saying “’readable code’ is a fundamental and highly desirable property of source code” (p. 1). These two authors, among others, show the importance of code readability in the development …show more content…
These comments, when done well, are used to answer the question of ‘why’ the code is required. They are either important to making clear the purpose behind certain sections of code, or providing a summary of the purpose behind the code to which it refers. These bits of information can be vital to explaining complicated sections which are not immediately apparent in the naming of variables and functions. Even though comments provide additional information with regard to the code itself, bad comments can obscure the code even more than not having them at all. As Martin (2012) states, bad comments “are crutches or excuses for poor code or justifications for insufficient decisions, amounting to little more than the programmer talking to himself” (p. 35). Even though comments can be detrimental and cluttering, they are also required to explain why certain actions are