Manual Narration vs Written Comments

Developers should use manual narration to improve code clarity, catch bugs early, and foster team learning, especially in collaborative environments like agile teams or when mentoring junior developers meets developers should use written comments to clarify complex algorithms, document assumptions, explain non-obvious code, and provide context for future maintainers, especially in team environments or large projects. Here's our take.

Manual Narration

Nice Pick

Developers should use manual narration to improve code clarity, catch bugs early, and foster team learning, especially in collaborative environments like agile teams or when mentoring junior developers

Pros

• It is particularly valuable during complex refactoring, when integrating new features, or in distributed teams to ensure alignment and reduce misunderstandings
• Related to: pair-programming, code-review

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Written Comments

Developers should use written comments to clarify complex algorithms, document assumptions, explain non-obvious code, and provide context for future maintainers, especially in team environments or large projects

Pros

• They are essential for onboarding new team members, reducing technical debt, and ensuring code quality over time, as seen in use cases like open-source contributions, legacy system maintenance, and regulatory compliance in industries like finance or healthcare
• Related to: code-documentation, clean-code

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Manual Narration is a methodology while Written Comments is a concept. We picked Manual Narration based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Manual Narration wins

Based on overall popularity. Manual Narration is more widely used, but Written Comments excels in its own space.