this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Good code is self documenting as in you don't need to describe what it is doing and it is clear to read. Whoever says that and isn't just repeating what they heard understands that whenever you are doing something not explicit in the code it should be on a comment.

Workarounds and explaining you need to use this structure instead of another for some reason are clear examples, but business hints are another useful comment. Or sectioning the process (though I prefer descriptive private functions or pragma regions for that).

It also addresses the hint that the code should be readable because you're not going to have comments to explain spaghetti. Just a hint, doesn't prevent it. Others also said it, comments are easier to get outdated as you don't have the compiler to assist. And outdated comments lead to confusion.