Question

Of the following, which is the LEAST important reason for including documentation in computer programs?
Elimination Tool

Select one answer
A
To describe the purpose/parameters of a procedure, so that maintenance is easier in the future. For example:
// The calcTax procedure accepts a purchase amount as its input parameter and calculates the state tax
// amount for the purchase.
B
To clarify well-named variables in the code so that you know what the variables represent. For example:
currentScore = 0 // represents the current score in the game
C
To highlight areas of code that are either incomplete or contain known issues. For example:
// TODO: This code is incomplete. We need to add code here to prompt the user for their userid and password
D
To provide insight into the code that offers knowledge transfer to other programmers. For example:
// The purpose of this program is to ask the customer for their opinions on the company’s customer service.
// The custIdentification procedure handles the process of capturing the identifying information of the customer.
// The custSurvey procedure captures the customer survey information.

Answer 1

B

Explaining what well-named variables mean is least important because it’s usually redundant. Good variable names and self-documenting code are preferable; comments should explain intent, non-obvious decisions, or future work (not restate obvious code), since redundant comments can become misleading as code changes.