Perl Best Practices [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

7.8. Comments

Use block templates for major comments .

Create comment templates that are suitable for your team. For example, to internally document a subroutine or method, you might use something like:

############################################
# Usage      : ????
# Purpose    : ????
# Returns    : ????
# Parameters : ????
# Throws     : no exceptions
# Comments   : none
# See Also   : n/a
 

which might be filled in like so:

############################################
# Usage      : Config::Auto->get_defaults(  )
# Purpose    : Defaults for 'new'
# Returns    : A hash of defaults
# Parameters : none
# Throws     : no exceptions
# Comments   : No corresponding attribute,
#            : gathers data from each
#            : attr_def attribute
# See Also   : $self->set_default(  )
 

Structured comments like that are usually better than free-form comments:

# This method returns a hash containing the defaults currently being
# used to initialize configuration objects. It takes no arguments.
# There isn't a corresponding class attribute; instead it collects
# the necessary information from the various attr_def attributes. There's
# also a set_default(  ) method.

Templates produce commenting that is more consistent and easier to read. They're also much more coder-friendly because they allow developers to simply "fill in a form". Comment templates also make it more feasible to ensure that all essential information is provided, and to identify missing information easily, by searching for any field that still has a ???? in its "slot".

Your team might prefer to use some other template for structured commentsmaybe even just this:

### CLASS METHOD/INSTANCE METHOD/INTERFACE SUB/INTERNAL UTILITY ###
# Purpose:  ????
# Returns:  ????
 

In this version, the type of subroutine can be specified by retaining one of the four titles, and only the essential information is recorded:

### CLASS METHOD ###
# Purpose:  Defaults for 'new'
# Returns:  A hash of defaults
 

Note that it's particularly useful to indicate how the subroutine is expected to be usedeither with a Usage: field, or with a title like CLASS METHOD. In Perl, the sub keyword is used to declare normal subroutines, class methods, instance methods, internal-use-only utilities, as well as the implementation of overloaded operators. Knowing which role (or roles) a particular subroutine is supposed to play makes it much easier to understand the subroutine, to use it correctly, and to maintain it.

A templated block comment like those recommended earlier should be used to document each component of a module or application. "Components" in this context means subroutines, methods, packages, and the main code of an application.