[wp-hackers] Inline documentation

[Evan Broder]

Dave Grijalva wrote:
> I totally agree here.  For both comments and debugging code.  By stripping
> them from the release version, there is zero extra overhead for the end user
> while still providing very worthwhile tools to the developers.  Many good
> IDEs for compiled languages have supported this for quite some time.  XCode,
> for example, supports multiple build profiles for development vs
> distribution and allows the developer to leave large quantities of debug
> code in the source, while stripping it automatically at compile time.
>   
But I think the point others were making is that WP is good for people 
who want to begin learning to develop. I would expect that the usual 
scenario is someone who has been using WP for a while and wants to write 
a plugin or something. They wouldn't have expected to need the 
development/commented version, so they wouldn't have it.

Also, there's an undeniable elegance in the one download only solution 
we've got going right now.
> Also, it should be noted that the Zend engine tends to be very efficient at
> removing comments and extra whitespace.  So even if some comments do get
> left in, the overhead cost is minimal.
>   
Agreed there. I think we should just release one version that's well 
commented. As it stands, the WP code can be a royal pain to try and 
decode---some comments would do it good.

- Evan