what is this called in the field of programming?

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Is there a term for it? A programmer told me once that there is the actual coding language and then a separate thing that some make out aside from the code that gives other programmers tips and notes on how the coding was done etc.

anyone?

 

[Tone]

Metadata was my guess. Then I googled...seems to fit.

I'm no comp. junkie though, so.

 

[hedrick]

There several answers. First, all programming languages let you intersperse comments with the code. They are used to explain things that might not be obvious when just looking at the code. Second, there are often separate design documents that describe the overall organization of the program, major data structures, etc. for complex projects there can be a variety of documentation. E.g testing plans and the results of tests. Also, some comments aren’t just narration, but have a specific structure. E.g. there may be structured comments for every function, with a brief description of its parameters and what it does. There are tools that will pick those comments out of the code and turn them into a separate document.

for a big project there can be people whose only job is to track the documents.

 

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Thanks guys. Nuff said.

 

[Occams Barber]

Is there a term for it? A programmer told me once that there is the actual coding language and then a separate thing that some make out aside from the code that gives other programmers tips and notes on how the coding was done etc.

anyone?

Decades ago, when I learned to code in BASIC, we used the term REM to indicate that the following text was a comment (a REMark) and not actionable code. It was typically used to explain what was going on in the program where this was not obvious.

OB

 

[Tone]

Decades ago, when I learned to code in BASIC, we used the term REM to indicate that the following text was a comment (a REMark) and not actionable code. It was typically used to explain what was going on in the program where this was not obvious.

OB

Interesting.

I wonder if it is analogous to dream.

Ha ha...REM sleep.

 

[Occams Barber]

Interesting.

I wonder if it is analogous to dream.

Ha ha...REM sleep.

I assume you know that REM in the context of sleep refers to Rapid Eye Movement?

OB

 

[Tone]

I assume you know that REM in the context of sleep refers to Rapid Eye Movement?

OB

Yes, that's why I used the idea of analogy.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Is there a term for it? A programmer told me once that there is the actual coding language and then a separate thing that some make out aside from the code that gives other programmers tips and notes on how the coding was done etc.

anyone?

// good code has comments, sometimes at the end of a line or as an introduction to a section.
# a comment has a leader so the compiler knows to skip the comment and not choke on it.
// sometimes I believe compiler ignores all my comments

 

[eleos1954]

Is there a term for it? A programmer told me once that there is the actual coding language and then a separate thing that some make out aside from the code that gives other programmers tips and notes on how the coding was done etc.

anyone?

Sometimes programmers will put comments/notes in the programming .... this is called commenting out. Used for "notes" and/or as an aid to disable portions of programming to "debug" it.

Comment-out definitions. To disable lines of code in a program by surrounding them with comment-start and comment-stop characters. Also called "remmed out." To temporarily disable a section of source code by converting it into a comment.

so the term used is comment out or remmed out.

 

[pgp_protector]

in Visual Studio C# / .NET, if you start a function with "///" you're get a "form" you can fill out


/// <summary>
/// This is what the function will do
/// </summary>
/// <param name="context">What SendObject Is</param>
/// <param name="rootNodes">What the List of Strings should be</param>
/// <returns>What I'm going to return to you</returns>
public MyObject MyCall(SendObject context, list<string> data)


Then when you call the function in code (either from a Nuget package or elsewhere in the code) With Intellisense enabled when you type the Function MyCall, it will have a popup window that will show the Summery , what the values should be.

 

[morse86]

Intellisense (code tips when you start "typing" the actual code in an IDE - integrated development environment...basically an editor that gives your tips and helps with compiling the code and some other stuff), code metrics (a tool that scans the code and gives tips on how to optimize, robust, or secure your code), and intermediate language (IL) which translates a 4g language down to 3g or lower levels of abstraction like assembly (.NET and Java both produce a IL binary).

 

[SeraphimSarov]

I cannot stress the importance of leaving good commentary in your code, not only for the sake of others who may read it later but also for yourself. I can't tell you how many times I've been lazy and thought it was obvious what my code was doing only to come back to it later and have no idea what in the world my code is supposed to be doing.

You can also use comments to disable sections of code if your program is behaving unexpectedly and you need to isolate the problem.