Write only programming

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Fri Mar 1 08:01:09 2002

> "R. D. Davis" <rdd_at_rddavis.org> wrote:
> > Also, remember that obfuscated code is an art form that should bring
> > bonuses and raises to programmers skilled in this art. Besides, a
> > programmer who can't read so-called "difficult to read code," with no
> > comments, isn't a real programmer. :-)
>
> No comments? I think you're forgetting the potential of comments as
> things whose maintenance is a lesser priority and whose relationship
> to the code may therefore differ from the reader's expectations.

Edward Yourdon recounts an episode in one of his textbooks about a
large assembly language program that was comment-free, except for
a single line (don't know the real processor so I'm faking the
instruction):

1827: MOV AX,0001H ; R.I.P. L.V.B.

The programmer brought in to maintain this code was certain that
this was the Rosetta Stone to the entire application; if he could
figure it out, he'd have no trouble with this code.

However, the final revelation wasn't very helpful, although he
did give up and finally just immerse himself in the code to gain
the understanding he'd vainly hoped he'd get from decyphering the
comment.

Any guesses as to the comment's meaning? No fair if
you read the book and know the answer from that...

;)
Received on Fri Mar 01 2002 - 08:01:09 GMT