Re:Geographically isolated bugs
by kijin on Tuesday January 13, 2015 @09:12PM
(#8883880)
> The purpose of a comment is to explain something; if you cannot explain it fluently, then the comment is useless.
Exactly. If a piece of code needs a comment in the first place, it means that there's something subtle about the task that cannot be fullly conveyed using code alone. But that's exactly the kind of thing that people have trouble expressing clearly in a non-native language.
I would much prefer a clearly written comment in another language that I can ask a colleague to translate for me, than a misleading comment in English.
Exactly. If a piece of code needs a comment in the first place, it means that there's something subtle about the task that cannot be fullly conveyed using code alone. But that's exactly the kind of thing that people have trouble expressing clearly in a non-native language.
I would much prefer a clearly written comment in another language that I can ask a colleague to translate for me, than a misleading comment in English.