For layout purposes, have you seen Docco[1] based on Rocco[2]? Coffeescript uses this[3] and the documentation looks very similar. The longform comments are a style choice in this case, as these packages just pull comments from the code.
Literate style code[4] is another example of comments being a primary actor in programming.
If having long comments inline is a problem, most text editors could hypothetically be extended to have automatically collapsed/collapsible comments after the first line.
Whoa, thanks! I hadn't seen any of those. Those all produce some really nice output.
Ultimately, I think the two can and should coexist. The benefit (and, I guess, potential drawback) of the OmniRef/RapGenius approach is that it allows the whole world to comment on code (and perhaps ask questions as well) versus generators like Docco/Rocco that (of course) can only display comments in the code that are provided by the code's maintainers.
Genius.com has a feature where they have verified contributors - for example, Genius/GZA from Wu-Tang sometimes explains his own lyrics on there. Those comments are displayed much like everybody elses' comments but are given special visual prominence because they're assumed to be authoritative.
We actually do give project members the ability to claim their code and make "verified" annotations -- we're just not doing the greatest job of surfacing that right now.
Agreed. Annotated code with long-form explanations on the side (instead of annoying comments which clutter up the code itself) is a huge help to aiding my understanding. I hope one day that IDEs will incorporate a code commenting system with clickable 'overview comments' which expand into broader side bar descriptions, making the code shorter and more readable yet at the same time better documented.
I always mean to dig into some popular Ruby gems or the Ruby core and read the code so I can improve my style.
But reading other peoples' code is tough - you can usually figure out what they're doing, but not necessarily why. This could change that.
It's like Genius (neé RapGenius) for code. That's a very good thing.