[COFF] Code/comment Ratios Style

[Mike Markowski]

I work in an RF lab where coding is focused on DSP with radio signals 
sampled as I/Q, in-phase/quadrature, streams.  I'd guess our source code 
is about 50/50 code/comment.  It certainly isn't assembly, which I do 
remember having trouble reading my own code afterward.  But it's similar 
to commenting assembly in that complex math (as in real/imag rather than 
'complicated') is not very clear to look at as code.  It never looks 
like the equations on paper, so comments try to bridge the gap - 
sometimes gulf.

Because IQ sigs are bundled up as exp(j theta), python with its builtin 
support for complex numbers is amazing for quick efforts. When there is 
a real need for speed, well, I admit there's still the ol' grand daddy 
of formula translation... :-)  But C is there as well in our lab!

Mike M

On 7/21/25 11:27 AM, Paul Winalski wrote:
> When writing all but the most trivial bug fixes I always put in a 
> comment referring to the bug report number.  This helps with what can 
> otherwise be a perplexing problem:  "why is this bit of code there?"
>
> Good and copius comments were especially important in the days of 
> handwritten assembly code.
>
> -Paul W.