Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vezuchyy 1074 days ago
If you have a process where every commit is well documented, you don't need much comments since you can rely on whatever is your analogue for git blame. It's not a lack of comments, it's actually the opposite but aside from the code base.

When I worked at SAP where VCS for ABAP is ancient and has no analogue for git blame we had a practice of putting a SAP Note next to every code change, since some of the things that we had to implement are dictated by business/legislation, so you need a proper explanation from time to time. Without it, the code becomes unmaintainable.
1 comments
ShadowBanThis01 1074 days ago
That requires everyone to have access to the repo, and to wade through it looking for changes to the relevant area of code you're working in. That sucks.
link
josephg 1074 days ago
Relying on commits also fails as soon as feature branches start being squashed. And the comments in commits can’t be modified over time. You have to hope readers “git blame” the correct lines of your code.

Just use comments.

link
cerved 1074 days ago
Don't squash. If you insist on it, I can't imagine why you wouldn't squash the commit messages

You're not supposed to change commit messages.

The correct lines to blame are the ones right there, not exactly rocket science

link
josephg 1073 days ago
If your git squash contains all the commit messages, it’s a pain to figure out which commit message refers to which line of code.

A comment goes right there. No tools needed. Mutable. Readable. Contextually in place. And you can even add comments while coding without waiting for the commit.

Is typing // really so much effort?

link
cerved 1073 days ago
No it's not and neither is writing a proper commit message. That's why you do both, but most of it goes in the commit. Like in the Git project
link
tormeh 1074 days ago
In which situation would you not have access to the repo? I guess if it's a library or something, but libraries must always be documented in a different way to business code.
link
ShadowBanThis01 1074 days ago
Maybe you're a contractor. Maybe it's legacy code that has simply been archived. Maybe the network is down. Maybe there was a bad migration.

Sidecars generally suck because they get lost.

link
cerved 1074 days ago
If that's the case, you have bigger problems than documentation
link
ShadowBanThis01 1074 days ago
Like what?
link