New thing in programming classes at University level is that commenting is bad, your code should be self describing. This is because comments are then another thing that has to be maintained.
This might be boiled down too much. I sometimes state it this way and have learned it's a poor way to do it because of the strong reaction it can invoke(as seen in this thread).
Comments should describe the reasoning(if necessary), what the intent of the code is and any references. Comments should not literally describe what the code is doing. Literal comments create more work by way of requiring an update if the code changes and if it's not updated, now there confusion about which is correct. More complex code is going to have more complex comments because sometimes it isn't appropriate or possible for code to be self describing(often for complex math and optimization). There's nothing wrong with sign post comments for complex spaghetti code too, if it can't be avoided.
It's a pretty fine line and it just takes experience to get it right. I agree that beginners should be pushed towards self describing code over comments because of the pitfalls mentioned above. They'll catch on with time if they understand their purpose.
A bit of a late reply because I'm behind on podcasts but:
Thanks for this podcast @wcarle! As someone who runs the server, all the software and develops websites solo for a company for over 20 years, everything you described really helped with my imposter syndrome. Having no peers can really make you second guess what you're doing and what goes on.
I've faced a lot of similar situations you described in operating and developing websites and it's good to hear it sounds like it's the same elsewhere. One time I even accidentally deleted a production web server running in a virtual machine that thought was redundant. Thankfully we had database backups and I had a scripted deployment so it was back up in a couple hours.
I see the audience still has too much power in Quiplash. It should be a bonus and tie splitter, the win should still go to player votes if it's not tied. Even if the overall winner has higher points because audience points, it would *feel* better to the players.
@jeff You really need to get off that pre-release ring on Windows. Wireless VR with Oculus Quest is amazing. I've never had a crash. I played through all of Half Life Alyx the week it came out and it has completely killed any desire to use my wired headset.
Windows 10 is supposed to be getting sandboxing at some point so you won't need a separate hypervisor. I think programs can even be run individually so they appear as local windows, instead of a whole new desktop.
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