Comments on: Lazy Block Comment Trick

By: Aleem

Aleem — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:35:45 +0000

Many could but no one did. The idea is trivial but you clearly cited this blog post but are adamant that you came up with it or all citations to this post should be removed everywhere. It’s just petty. Google up “lazy block comment” and let me know what you find.

By: Aleem

Aleem — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:32:57 +0000

Absolutely agree with you. Block comments are simple enough that I am sure hundreds have stumbled across the same but it was after this post that "Lazy block comments" came into use and you can see it cited on other blogs because the idea has a name which improves transferability. If you Google the phrase there are no other citations. @Sam152 got it from this post or from a post that got it from this post. Personally I don't care much either way, but he went out of this way to debunk this post despite borrowing the same terminology and I am compelled to respond.

Design patterns have existed for a long time but the attribution and naming of these patterns is what brings them into common use (read Head First Design Patterns for excellent commentary on this). A good example is XMLHttpRequest which was tucked away and hidden until AJAX.

May not matter much but it is what it is.

By: Kobi

Kobi — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:34:24 +0000

With all due respect, that trick is applicable in all languages with c++ style comments, it probably exists for over 20 years. I've seen and used it many times, and I think most developers can come up with that. Obviously, you wouldn't see too many of these in final code, most commented code gets deleted before it is released, and even after a specific bug was fixed. Now, just for the challenge, I found this one quite quickly, from 2007, and I'm sure there are more: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4029

Anyway, happy coding :)

By: Sam152

Sam152 — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:27:26 +0000

I wasn't ripping you off and passing it off as my own. I certainly haven't read your blog before you posted the link. Lazy is just the best word used to describe a special block comment, it's not very unique or special, just a description of what lots of people have evidently discovered.

I'm sure many would use to word "lazy" to describe the programing practice, I think it's naive to take credit for being the "first" person to use such a common adjective.

By: Aleem

Aleem — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:27:12 +0000

I dubbed the technique "Lazy Block Comments" and I challenge you to find any prior citations of this technique.

As surely as I am writing this email to you, I wrote out this blog post and came up with the name "Lazy Block Comments" which you referred to verbatim in your post on SO. If you want to have integrity then I suggest you cite your sources instead of passing it off as your own.

By: Sam152

Sam152 — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:17:24 +0000

You did by no means invent this or the term “Lazy Block Comment” and I would appreciate if you would stopping adding this link into my Stack Overflow answer. A meta discussion (http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/50039) has deemed it unacceptable behavior.

I’m writing this as a comment to your blog post because I have no real way of replying to you on the official stack overflow system, feel free to delete this after you have read it.

Thank you.

By: Sarfraz Ahmed

Sarfraz Ahmed — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:28:54 +0000

Yup, that is useful tip to have around ;)

By: Block-level comments trick - wpparty.com

Block-level comments trick - wpparty.com — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 22:44:44 +0000

[...] to Aleem Bawany for the second trick (he uses //*/ as the closing comment, which works [...]

By: Block-level comments trick « Mark on WordPress

Block-level comments trick « Mark on WordPress — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:19:16 +0000

[...] to Aleem Bawany for the second trick (he uses //*/ as the closing comment, which works pretty much the same [...]