Visual Basic® Style Guide, The

How to Comment

Comments say a lot not only about a program, but about a programmer. The lack of same also says much about you as a programmer. If you get nothing else out of this section, please remember this: put useful comments in your code. This simple statement is probably one of the most argued aspects of programming. It ranks right up there with the use of the GoTo statement.

There are six different types of comments used within source code. Each type is identified by one of the six main "question" words used in English: who, what, where, when, why, and how. This common method of listing the six question words also happens to be the order of significance for comments, from least to greatest. As you write your application, keep asking yourself ...