Direction of KDevelop4

[Andrew Sutton]

> On the other hand, the more comments there is, the easier it is to  
> have them
> go out of synch with the code. And as you say, the only real bad  
> comment is a
> lying comment.

true enough. it's a delicate balance :)

>
> Wouldn't it be a great test to ask them to write a program without  
> a single
> comment and remind them that you will have to understand what they  
> wrote very
> easily ? That way, you would theach them not to write obfuscated  
> code, even
> if there is some comment to explain what it does.
>

not a bad idea, but it might reinforce the notion that uncommented  
code is acceptable - which we really don't want. i grade style  
anyway, so the students lose points for obfuscation, inconsistent  
indenting, etc.

this can easily veer off topic. i just wanted to point out that  
removing comments is a pretty bad idea. for better or worse, somebody  
wrote them, and as long as their accurate, they're meaningful to that  
person.

andrew sutton
asutton at cs.kent.edu