Document your Code

Development 3 Minutes

I was told this week the code doesn’t need documentation because the developers are good at naming things. So I thought it was time to revisit what kind of documentation should be included in code.

Code Comments

There are 2 common objections to code comments

  1. They are not very useful because the code tells us what the program does
  2. They are often wrong because the code changes but not the comments

This is just the talk of lazy “low effort” developers. I think the agile manifesto “working software over comprehensive documentation” has done more harm than good.

Well written comments are invaluable. I’ve never come across an outdated comment that threw me off in a way that I couldn’t just delete it. 🤷‍♂️

Here are some examples of code comments I find useful

1. Adding context that is not in the code

This code was written because a behaviour in macOS.

// On macOS it's common to re-create a window in the app when the
// dock icon is clicked and there are no other windows open.
if (BrowserWindow.getAllWindows().length === 0) createWindow();

2. Adding intention to the code

There are some things that only work in this order.

// This method will be called when Electron has finished
// initialization and is ready to create browser windows.
// Some APIs can only be used after this event occurs.
app.whenReady().then(() => {
  createWindow();
});

3. Rabbit holes you went down and want to warn others of

Warning, here be dragons. 🐉

// THE OBJECT POLYFILL WILL NOT WORK ON THE WEBKIT 1.0.3 PLATFORM
// import "core-js/es/object";

4. Explaining what is going on that the code doesn’t communicate clearly

Why must public url be the same as window location?

if (publicUrl.origin !== window.location.origin) {
  // Our service worker won't work if PUBLIC_URL is on a different origin
  // from what our page is served on. This might happen if a CDN is used to
  // serve assets; see https://github.com/facebook/create-react-app/issues/2374
  return;
}

5. Add a reference to the bug or issue that prompted the change

Go check the bug description to find more information why the code looks like this.

Sentry.init({
  // BUG AB#3133 Decrease sample rate in production
  // Decreasing sample rate to keep costs down.
  tracesSampleRate: 0.1,
});

6. Description of public modules and functions

In order to get nice intellisense when using this module or function from elsewhere in the code.

/**
 * A button that let's you copy the current value to clipboard.
 *
 * @param {object} props
 * @param {string} props.text - The text to display on the button.
 * @param {string} props.value - The value to copy to clipboard.
 * @param {boolean} [props.isDisabled] - Whether the button should be disabled.
 */
function CopyButton({ text, value, isDisabled = false }) {
}

7. Source of Information

Not going to explain all this crap here. Go read up!

/**
 * The source for these abbreviations is here.
 * https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/ready/azure-best-practices/resource-abbreviations
 */
 let abbreviations = ["aks", "appcs", "ase", "plan", "appi", "apim", ....];

8. Source of Copy/Pasted Code

(we all do it sometimes)

// source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15289883
function dateDiffInDays(a, b) {
  // Discard the time and time-zone information.
  const utc1 = Date.UTC(a.getFullYear(), a.getMonth(), a.getDate());
  const utc2 = Date.UTC(b.getFullYear(), b.getMonth(), b.getDate());

  return Math.floor((utc2 - utc1) / _MS_PER_DAY);
}

9. In order to understand this code you’ll need to know more about this special topic

We are not making up the rules, they are!

// Official DCC Schema documentation
// https://github.com/ehn-dcc-development/ehn-dcc-schema
function parseDccSchema(dcc) {
}

10. What kind of result you can expect from a module or function

/**
 * Calculator screen. It is divided into a left and right part, where the left part 
 * is the input form and the right part presents the result. If the screen width is
 * less than 768px the left part becomes top and the right part becomes the bottom.
 */
function Calculator() {
  /** implementation.. */
}

Summary

Anyone can write code that computers understand. The challenge is writing code that also humans understand.

If you want to know more about how I document code, check out the convention on my wiki.

Published