Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!vsi!friedl
From: friedl@vsi.UUCP (Stephen J. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: American Programmer
Message-ID: <461@vsi.UUCP>
Date: 30 Mar 88 00:09:31 GMT
References: <555@psu-cs.UUCP> <1434@ur-tut.UUCP> <3415@bunker.UUCP> <3326@zeus.TEK.COM>
Organization: V-Systems, Inc. -- Santa Ana, CA
Lines: 23

In article <3326@zeus.TEK.COM>, karenc@amadeus.TEK.COM (Karen Cate) writes:

>     2.  One teacher had us write a program and hand it in.  He then randomly
> 	distributed them back to the class.  We then had to add/modify this
> 	other students' program.  This was the second CS class we took, so
> 	we:  a) learned a whole lot, and b) none of ours was good enough that 
> 	we took offence at the comments of our peers (as a general rule).
> 	There was not one complaint about requiring comments after that.
> 	It also taught us the difference between helpful comments and the
> 	stuff you put in to please the TA.

What a great idea!  How many times have you heard (or said!) in
school "Yea, I'm done with the program, now I have to put in the
comments".  Even after almost three years of heavy commercial
development I am still learning how to put in good documentation
that *means* something to a maintainer (i.e., me) a year down the
road.  Students need to learn what the word "maintenance" means...

The rest of Karen's comments are equally good as well.

-- 
Steve Friedl           V-Systems, Inc.            *Hi Mom*
friedl@vsi.com {uunet,ihnp4}!vsi.com!friedl attmail!friedl