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edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:38

The principal purpose of code is commanding a computer to do something, so a good comment is never a substitute for good code because comments can't be executed.

That being said, comments in the source are one form of documentation for other programmers (including yourself). If the comments are about more abstract issues than what the code is doing at every step, you're doing better than average. That level of abstraction varies with the tool you're using. Comments accompanying assembly language routines generally have a lower level of "abstraction" than, for example, this APL A←0⋄A⊣{2⊤⍵:1+3×⍵⋄⍵÷2}⍣{⍺=A+←1}⎕A←0⋄A⊣{2⊤⍵:1+3×⍵⋄⍵÷2}⍣{⍺=A+←1}⎕. I think that would probably merit a comment about the problem it's intended to solve, hmmm?

The principal purpose of code is commanding a computer to do something, so a good comment is never a substitute for good code because comments can't be executed.

That being said, comments in the source are one form of documentation for other programmers (including yourself). If the comments are about more abstract issues than what the code is doing at every step, you're doing better than average. That level of abstraction varies with the tool you're using. Comments accompanying assembly language routines generally have a lower level of "abstraction" than, for example, this APL A←0⋄A⊣{2⊤⍵:1+3×⍵⋄⍵÷2}⍣{⍺=A+←1}⎕. I think that would probably merit a comment about the problem it's intended to solve, hmmm?

The principal purpose of code is commanding a computer to do something, so a good comment is never a substitute for good code because comments can't be executed.

That being said, comments in the source are one form of documentation for other programmers (including yourself). If the comments are about more abstract issues than what the code is doing at every step, you're doing better than average. That level of abstraction varies with the tool you're using. Comments accompanying assembly language routines generally have a lower level of "abstraction" than, for example, this APL A←0⋄A⊣{2⊤⍵:1+3×⍵⋄⍵÷2}⍣{⍺=A+←1}⎕. I think that would probably merit a comment about the problem it's intended to solve, hmmm?

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answered Sep 1, 2014 at 2:12

Scott Leadley

The principal purpose of code is commanding a computer to do something, so a good comment is never a substitute for good code because comments can't be executed.

That being said, comments in the source are one form of documentation for other programmers (including yourself). If the comments are about more abstract issues than what the code is doing at every step, you're doing better than average. That level of abstraction varies with the tool you're using. Comments accompanying assembly language routines generally have a lower level of "abstraction" than, for example, this APL A←0⋄A⊣{2⊤⍵:1+3×⍵⋄⍵÷2}⍣{⍺=A+←1}⎕. I think that would probably merit a comment about the problem it's intended to solve, hmmm?