[Shootout-list] Directions of various benchmarks

[skaller]

On Wed, 2005-05-18 at 18:08, Einar Karttunen wrote:
> skaller <skaller@users.sourceforge.net> writes:
> > Why? Clutter is clutter, valuable comments are valuable,
> > either way: Comments cost. 
> 
> I like to have the shootout entries extra commented. I am not fluent in
> most of the languages of the shootout so extra commented entries are
> allways a bonus. Also I would like to give brownie points for someone
> who discusses in comments why something is done differently in this
> language.

I agree totally. However it is only half an argument: I want to
see good coding rewarded including good commenting.

They add value to the code, by adding redundancy, which is
important to the human side -- and for some languages
like Eiffel contracts are not merely commentary but
can actually be checked at runtime.

However, this doesn't mean comments should not cost:
in the real world it not only takes time to write
executable code -- it takes time to write comments.

In fact I would contend that writing good commentary
is both harder and takes longer than writing code!

Consider that the actual code doing the work *also*
costs, you're really arguing that people will drop
comments because they cost LOC, but do not improve
performance.

Well, isn't THAT the problem that we need to fix?

-- 
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
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