>I agree pretty much completely. I'd add that if you comment, you have to accept that you have to maintain your comments just like you maintain your code. I've been burned a couple of times by my own comments, in cases where I've had to make emergency mods and didn't have time to update them.

You can always squeeze a few seconds for that. Even better: write the comment BEFORE you write the code, may comment writing be your Auntie Emma. If you can't explain why are you doing what you're doing, how can you be sure you really know what you're doing? ;).

I generally agree with both your and Dorris' story and the blog - which is pretty much the same thing I heard from Rox years ago. The big sentence was "don't tell me what you're doing, I can read the code, tell me why are you doing it and specially why this way so I don't try to fix your solution".

>A couple of years ago I nearly dove right in to the "comments are lies" philosophy. After returning to my senses I decided to accept the grain of truth at its core - these days I try to keep my comments focused and accurate, often explaining underlying business requirements if code looks weird.
>
>One of many rants on commenting is the May 15, 2007 blog at http://blog.visionpace.com/perfect_vision/index.html