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How do you balance the need for rapid development with the importance of thorough documentation and code commenting?

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5.0 (65)
  • AI developer
  • Full stack developer
  • Mobile app developer

Posted

The tension between rapidly moving toward development, versus thoroughly documenting and commenting, is about prioritization and process.

I mostly try to focus on writing clean, self-documenting code. If I use meaningful variable names and structured functions, as well as keeping my formatting consistent, I can usually write code that requires very few comments. Well-organized code often speaks for itself and allows me to push development in the interest of efficiency without sacrificing maintainability.

I will never skip out on critical documentation, though. The speed of development has nothing to do with the importance of solid comments. Especially if there are tricky algorithms, any major decision points, along with elaborate code logic, I will not only make sure to document completely, but I will pay extra attention to doing so. This is also useful for providing clarity in the months ahead.

To keep the process balanced, I try to make use of auto-documentation tools. Many modern frameworks and languages will auto-generate documentation from code comments so that I can keep working quickly while also maintaining some clarity into the process.

Finally, I try to build in regular checkpoints into the process. For example, following important milestones in the project, I will devote some time to updating the documentation and adding comments that I may have missed. 

In the end, the goal is to avoid sacrificing long-term maintainability for short-term speed by starting with good development habits.

5.0 (305)
  • Programming & Tech

Posted

We write blockchain based software (smart contracts). And it is super important to write a documentation and code comments to increase its readability and also professionalism. This applies to all the software languages and architectures.   

Writing comments and documentations are important, but sometimes developer gets too busy writing code, he feels very overwhelm with writing documents.

Quote

Tip: The best approach is to use AI tools to write docs and comments. 

Just enter the code in the chatGPT and ask it to write a comments and documents, it does it very professionally. And then just review it to make sure there technical harmony. 

And then you are good to go! 

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