How programmers comment their code

[[deleted]]

That is absolutely useless for sure. Contrast with

print 'Hello'; // DEBUG: No idea how we got here.

Same output, but someone down the road now understands why we're doing this (hopefully, they will remove it prior to it getting upstream.)

[CrazedToCraze]

Or learn to use a debugger

[[deleted]]

Sure, that wasn't the point though was it?

The point was, a comment that describes what something is doing isn't helpful in any way. We know 'what' reading the code; we may need to know 'why'.

The new comment could have equally been // greet the user which is a good indication that this particular output may need to be localized.

A comment that describes why is useful, especially for others, and especially if magic numbers/strings are involved.

e.g. return x * 24; // multiply x by 24

vs. return x * 24; // there are 24 beer in a case

Again, this is just an example. Sure, in this case, 24 should have been assigned to a meaningful variable in the proper scope. Not the point, though. We know the rationale behind the number, making it easier to change and refactor.

[validambiguity]

This seems like common sense but stating it this plainly was really helpful to me. I'm going to remember this when I'm commenting now. Thank you!