Re: Infinite Loops and Explicit Exits

From: Lueko Willms (l.willms_at_jpberlin.de)
Date: 11/10/04 

Date: 10 Nov 2004 10:38:00 GMT

. Am 09.11.04
 schrieb lacey@mb.sympatico.ca (Peter Lacey)
     bei /COMP/LANG/COBOL
      in 419192C2.4B3A7292@mb.sympatico.ca
   ueber Re: Infinite Loops and Explicit Exits

PL> The code can be clear as a bell, properly structured, meaningful data
PL> names etc., and still be incomprehensible. If you don't know what
PL> the program is supposed to be doing - let's say it's implementing
PL> some encrypting method which you don't know exists - you will NEVER
PL> be able to understand the code. At the very least, comments
PL> indicating where the problem statement is to be found are an absolute
PL> requirement.

  That's the kind of comment I had in mind as the necessary comments.
To explain what is not obvious from the code. But also, as DocDwarf so
efficiently explained, "obvious is in the mind of the beholder".

  But one should assume that the reader knows COBOL and knows about
the task being solved.

>> Quite often it happens that the program is changed, but the
>> documentation is not brought up to date, to conform with the actual
>> program.

PL> Then the comments are REALLY needed! I'd upgrade "quite often" to
PL> "nearly always".

   And I was thinking of the part of documentation which is the
comments in the program text.

Yours,
Lüko Willms http://www.mlwerke.de
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"Es sind nicht die Generäle und Könige, die die Geschichte machen,
sondern die breiten Massen des Volkes" - Nelson Mandela

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