Game Development Patterns and Best Practices

Commenting

If the code is self-documenting, then why do we need to add comments at all? This is certainly the feeling of some programmers. When the comments aren't doing more than simply repeating the code, or when comments are out of date and difficult to update, then it is easy to understand why they feel that way. However, this is the opposite of what good comments should be.

Good comments should explain things that the code cannot. For example, copyright information, or author and contact information are things that can't be represented in code, but may be of use to the reader. Additionally, good comments do not simply repeat the code. The comment below is completely worthless. It adds nothing to the code:

 //Assign START_VALUE to x  ...