Kommentering

Kommentering is the act of producing comments or notes that accompany a text, artifact, or program to explain, criticize, or annotate. The term is used across domains such as literature, education, media, and software development. In general, comments are intended to provide context, clarify intent, or guide future readers.

In literature and scholarly work, kommentering refers to marginalia, annotations, or critical commentary added to texts, often to explain archaic terms, reference sources, or elaborate interpretations. Annotated editions of manuscripts or classical works illustrate this practice. In media and online discussions, user comments add reactions, explanations, or discourse around a work.

In software engineering, code comments are snippets of natural language or structured annotations embedded in source code to explain logic, assumptions, or to disable parts temporarily. Common conventions include line comments (for example // or #) and block comments (/* ... */). Good commenting practices emphasize conciseness, relevance, and keeping comments up to date with code changes. Over-commenting or outdated comments reduce readability.

The effectiveness of kommentering depends on audience and purpose. Clear guidelines and moderation help maintain constructive commentary in public forums, while in program code, consistent style guides and documentation generation improve long-term maintainability. See also marginalia, annotation, inline documentation.