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votes

To put it another way... What is the most commonly held and frustrating misunderstanding about programming, you have encountered?

Which widespread and longstanding myths/misconceptions do you find hard for programmers to dispel/correct.

Please, explain why this is a myth.

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  • 24
    I'd like to see Mythbusters take on some of these.
    – spong
    Sep 9, 2010 at 17:47
  • 8
    Anyone up for a Mythbuggers YouTube channel? :-) Sep 9, 2010 at 21:32
  • 1
    Ooooh, MythBusters and race conditions! Meesa like!
    – user1249
    Oct 24, 2010 at 14:59
  • @TomWij that would be great to have a website with such name! Oct 24, 2010 at 15:21

61 Answers 61

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-6
votes

That comments are actually useful

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  • 5
    I think you meant the opposite ...
    – HoLyVieR
    Sep 13, 2010 at 2:52
  • 6
    Let's rephrase that as "That comments are inherently useful", because that is obviously blatantly wrong. Comments can even be misleading or disruptive. Ideally code should be self-explanatory. Comments should only be used to add non-obvious details or explain complex code that can't be refactored into a more readable version (e.g. because doing so would be seriously inefficient or impossible).
    – Alan Plum
    Sep 19, 2010 at 17:49
  • Totally agree. In fact overuse/incorrect of comments I would consider harmful. Jan 17, 2011 at 5:35
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