Testing thread about nothing (I'm trying to diagnose an LQ-related Firefox issue)

@MTK358

The one with the guy talking about using Knoppix at his university isn't complete, but I'll post the rest of it:

Originally Posted by Computer Stupidities My instructor saw me and said, "What are you doing? That's not Windows! That's a VIRUS, isn't it? I'm going to report you for malicious use of school computers!" My advisor, who is a Linux proponent and also the sysadmin at the time, apparently laughed him out of his office when he went to complain.

Yes, if it's not Windows, it must be a VIRUS!

At least the sysadmin knew better

And 3 comments per line?? Ack!

Originally Posted by MrCode And 3 comments per line?? Ack!

Yeah, I find that code with alot of comments between lines of code (and most code I find is commented that way) is almost unreadable for me, because it's hard to tell apart comments and code for me that way.

I like it when every block of code is preceeded by a block of comments, and/or for every few lines to have a comment on the same line after the code.

Hi,

I remember when coding 1-2 solid code lines per day was the norm. That would be debugging and testing to insure the code was valid.

As for commenting code: I like to comment enough to refresh whenever I re-look at a piece days or even years later then I don't have to familiarize conditions or status within a code block. Even with good commenting I would sometimes need to work/look the code over again therefore good hinting does save time.

Old school coders still document and cannot understand why someone else doesn't. As for myself, I will document but only within the block not always by line unless the line has merit.

We used to have too write code tight. Today most coders don't, memory is cheap and the process is a lot faster. Most high level languages have made a lot of lazy programmers who don't care that much about tight efficient code. Some waste a lot of resource to details that could be addressed via a good coders toolbox. Which a lot of the coders today don't really maintain like older coders do or did.

Originally Posted by MTK358 Yeah, I find that code with alot of comments between lines of code (and most code I find is commented that way) is almost unreadable for me

Man, I hate that! It's done all too often with "example" code in tutorials (and/or example code with programs/APIs), probably so as to "explain each line as it's written".

Just give me the raw, uncommented code (or at least with very concise comments, no longer than about 4-5 words) and let me get the rest of the info from the tutorial text itself.

If that happens to me, either a) I'll delete the comments (assuming that's not where most of the tutorial text resides, ugh), or b) I'll just tune them out as best I can. I have blue italics for comments in gedit's syntax highlighting, which is easily tune-outable on a black background.

In fact, usually I'll re-type the code myself, manually, without the comments (if necessary).

Hi,

Originally Posted by MrCode <snip> In fact, usually I'll re-type the code myself, manually, without the comments (if necessary).

Ever heard of OCR & editor?

blah

I like spare comments also.
1 + CPL make the code confusing.

Originally Posted by MrCode Man, I hate that! It's done all too often with "example" code in tutorials (and/or example code with programs/APIs), probably so as to "explain each line as it's written".

I agree 100%. Whenever I come across code like that in a tutorial and can't find a better tutorial, I copy the code into an editor and manually delete every single comment. Suddenly the code is very easy to understand! A great example of this is the GTK+ tutorial.

I really wonder what the hell people are thinking when they write those.

I also hate it when every second line of code is a comment explaining what the next line does. I see this in some "real" programs, not just tutorials.

Good:

/*
This is what
the following
block of code does.
*/

foo(); // explain what foo and bar do
bar();

Bad:

// foo does this
foo();
// bar does this
bar();

I just remembered that a C example program that comes with Turbo C++
has a 400 line comment on top and atleast a comment evrey 3 lines.

Originally Posted by onebuck Hi, Ever heard of OCR & editor?

No, what is it?? Otomatic Comment Remover?

Hi,

No, 'Optical Comment Remover'.

Originally Posted by onebuck Hi, No, 'Optical Comment Remover'.

What's an "Optical Comment Remover"?

@onebuck

The reason I tend to re-type the code is that sometimes I find I get a better understanding of what the code does if I simply type it out by hand; kind of like how when you write out your ideas, you tend to remember them better.

Plus which, I also get a slight feeling of guilt from just doing Ctrl-C Ctrl-V, so I also kind of change the variable/class/function names sometimes (while keeping the code consistent, of course). It helps me to learn the concepts behind the code, rather than just the code itself.

Testing quick reply in newest chrome on slack

And now testing the edit.

Originally Posted by MrCode @onebuck The reason I tend to re-type the code is that sometimes I find I get a better understanding of what the code does if I simply type it out by hand; kind of like how when you write out your ideas, you tend to remember them better. Plus which, I also get a slight feeling of guilt from just doing Ctrl-C Ctrl-V, so I also kind of change the variable/class/function names sometimes (while keeping the code consistent, of course). It helps me to learn the concepts behind the code, rather than just the code itself.

I tend to practice tutorials like that, too.