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Joe,
You didn't mention if they're using a canned tagging utility
such as Doxygen or their own script. Not that it matters
much except that they won't be able to "re-insert" extracted
comments in any canned utility that I know of.
If you do not have and cannot gain their trust to edit the
code comments yourself, I'd advise that you leave them alone.
Making changes outside of the utility's workflow is just a
waste of time - and you'll have to do it for every revision.
That's not practical. They could, if they'd a mind to, take
a file that you've edited and merge it back into the system
rather than letting you check stuff in/out - but you'd have
to find a dev who cares enough to help. (Doesn't sound likely)
Besides, if they're a "just read the code" bunch, they'll do
just fine with thier own obtuse and ungrammatical comments.
If you start getting feedback that the docs are unclear and
less-than-useful, that's your cue to start campaigning to
edit the code.
Until then, let sleeping comments lie.
My two cents.
-Sue Gallagher
>
> From: jsokohl -at- mac -dot- com
>...I'm working on a
> software design description. Developers ... use code comments (both header & inline) to make up the info that
> describes the modules. They extract the comments with a script to produce
> this doc...
>
> My conern ... Do I edit ... the often obtuse and sometime grammatically incorrect
> ... comments comprehensible, or do I let sleeping code
> comments lie?
> * If I edit them, then they immediately differ from what's in the code.
> * If I ask 'em to add the edited text back into their code, they do double
> work (and they're already frightfully resentful of having to do
> documentation of their code in the first place--this dev environment's
> rampant with the "just read the damn code" mentality).
>
> Bother.
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