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Admin
// John told us that this comment is frist
Admin
John told me to write this comment.
Admin
John told me to reply
Admin
I mean, the comment does explain why the code is that way...
Admin
You're only supposed to do it if Simon Says
Admin
I used to work with John, and I just ignored everything he said.
Admin
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////Comment held for moderation.//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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Hold this comment for moderation.
Admin
John told us to hold this comment for moderation.
Admin
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Admin
John told us to use Fortran.
Admin
I just started a new job and they explicitly forbade me to write any comments beyond Swagger API descriptions. I guess they had too many people writing "John Told Us" comments :-)
Admin
John also used to say "Laugh while you can, monkey boy!" a LOT. Nobody understood why.
Admin
Comments like these say a lot. They say that you're the type of programmer who just puts the code in without expending the mental effort required to understand why things need to be that way. Or without thinking about if there's perhaps a better way. You're the type of programmer who copy-pastes stuff straight off SO, and who keeps adding logic upon logic to their code until the output "looks right" and is now an unmaintainable mess with a plethora of hidden bugs and traps.
Admin
Maybe there should have also been some onus on John to explain himself a lot better in the first place, so that code monkeys weren't going off doing as they were instructed without understanding of what they were doing.
Admin
John told us he likes code monkeys to just do what he said and not get too creative. John said he's the creative one. All others just need to follow his lead.
Also John said to not do refactoring, or unit tests. Waste of time. Apparently John never needs that.
Admin
Or it could just be a bunch of developers who fully well know the code is wrong but are forced to include it anyway because of a dictatorial supervisor. And those comments are basically there to ensure future developers looking at it know which idiot ordered it so. That and as a tiny bit of satirical rebellion to make your work less miserable.
For example I once had a supervisor whose approach was that if a bug took longer than a day to fix you would just focus on fixing the symptoms instead. Which resulted in what can only be described as frontend output validation. As in, code on the frontend that reads like: IF ( value received from program is slightly wrong due to bug ) display hardcoded known good value.
It sort of worked because we were dealing with graphics. But it was also godawful.
I coined the term "hammering in with nails" for that approach as an allusion to planking up your window to correct for a broken pane. It was satire, but of course he loved it.
So yea, that sort of thing happens.
Admin
There's no WTF here. Since the mapping is not untuitive, some kind of confirmation is completely in order. This happens a lot when different teams have different responsibilities, and their worlds meet (for examply in the JSON returned from API's or table fields mapping to classes). A data dictionary would echo what John said.
Admin
If John told you to jump off a cliff, would you do that too?
Admin
Ask: Which one?
Admin
I agree. If you come across that code with no comment, you might change it for being obviously wrong. If you see the comment, then you know that this was done deliberately.
Admin
The 'why' IS important, even if it's only "John told us". I mean, that means the guru told us but we're not entirely convinced. I've maintained 30+yr old code bases; the comments can be quite useful. Definitely helps you get a feel for the competence level (and sanity?) of the previous custodians.
Admin
I would ask him to demonstrate first, so I know I'm doing it right.
Admin
I am sure THE John is still there.... that people think it is telling them what to do is terrifying (but not surprising)
Admin
"John told us" is a very informal way of documenting a requirement, but the comment does give the requirement met by the code and the source for the requirement. Perhaps the coder should have worked a little harder on his English classes in college.
Admin
I think the WTF is supposed to be that they just wrote "John said to do this" instead of asking John why he wants these things and putting the answer to that in the comments instead.