• xmunk
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      1 year ago

      The best explanation I’ve ever heard is:

      Comments should state the ‘Why’ never the ‘What’.

      • hikaru755@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        There are some cases though where the code is just complicated for reasons outside of your control, in which case “what” comments are good - but they should never be taken at face value, but only used as a first step in understanding the code. There’s a significant risk of the code not actually doing what the comment says.

    • dukk@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Yeah. Most of the time I use comments in my algorithms, as they often use some weird optimized black magic which are difficult to understand without comments.