Thanks for bringing this up. I find it relates to (a) age, (b) the fact that I am managing ORACLE and SQL Server (i.e. do more with less), (c) the fact that I am also a mother to 2 boys (8 and 5) and have some stress, (d) manage fellow dba's). -I think you should comment codes and scripts -Use versioning software and add comments to the releases - -I have been working on my group to document using Sharepoint which makes it easier for us to share build docs, restore/recovery docs....practice...practice...practice -Talk to other people about the concepts in explaning it their questions will solidify it more in your mind. So many technicans make the mistake of working in a hole - not good, not healthy, not fun What I find frustrating is I have forgotten things that years ago I knew flat because I haven't touched that part of the technology - bt I have gotten better at searches, at organizing my resources (books), urls organized as favorites, specific documents for my environment in sharepoint under specific folders. So as more is required, information is always changing, you might do something today you won't do again for a while - organization is the key!!!! -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of stephen booth Sent: Friday, August 19, 2005 11:59 AM To: oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Problems retaining what I study On 19/08/05, Dennis Williams <oracledba.williams@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I used to work for a software vendor whose policy was "no comments in code". > Usually I'm a real documentation kind of guy. So I was a bit shocked > at this policy, to say the least. And this job was writing C code > which doesn't have a reputation for self-documentation. After working > there for awhile, I gradually began to see the wisdom of their policy. Consider these points: > - Comments can be a crutch. If a programmer is forced to rely > solely on the code, then you tend to make the code more > self-documenting. Perhaps instead of selecting "A", "B" and so on for > variable names, you carefully select meaningful names. Or write the > code in a straightforward manner rather than dazzling with arcane constructions. My variable names were more like machine_asset_tag or next_maintenence_date. Function names would be things like get_valid_future_date_from_user() or get_string(int string_size). > - Out-of-date comments can be misleading. People often modify code > but fail to modify the comments. True. But I see that as an arguement for making people edit comments on code they've changed rather than just banning people from writing comments. Also, the comment blocks at the top of functions (and similar) that I mentioned, they would include a change control/record block for maintainers to include the date and description of any changes. > - Most comments are superfluous, of the variety "the following > line sums the values of A and B and stores the result in C", followed by C = A + B. > Having 7 lines of comment per line of code can end up obscuring the code. > When I said 7 lines of comment for each line of code I didn't mean: // comment // comment // comment // comment // comment // comment // comment code ... Most (probably around 60-70%) lines of code would have a line of comment associated with them but most of the commenting was in big blocks at the top of each function, procedure or other distinct block of code describing what it did &c. Stephen -- It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption. -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS ------------------------------------------------------ Teach CanIt if this mail (ID 41740139) is spam: Spam: https://dohsmsi01.doh.state.fl.us/canit/b.php?c=s&i=41740139&m=3ef0cb678 031 Not spam: https://dohsmsi01.doh.state.fl.us/canit/b.php?c=n&i=41740139&m=3ef0cb678 031 Forget vote: https://dohsmsi01.doh.state.fl.us/canit/b.php?c=f&i=41740139&m=3ef0cb678 031 ------------------------------------------------------ END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS -- http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l