Code Comment Best Practices: When and What to Write
When to comment code and when not to. Best practices for inline comments, JSDoc/docstrings, TODO notes, and keeping comments in sync with code.
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Tags: text, writing, programming
Code Comments Best Practices: What to Comment, What to Skip Code comments are a hotly debated topic in software development. "Good code doesn't need comments" is one school of thought. "Comments explain intent" is another. The truth is more nuanced: the best comments explain things that the code cannot express — decisions, reasoning, and context that is invisible in the executable statements. --- The Core Principle: Comment the Why, Not the What Code shows what happens. Comments should explain why it happens. If a comment restates what the code already says clearly, it adds noise and maintenance burden (it can become stale when the code changes). --- Don't Comment Obvious Code Comments that duplicate what is obvious from the code create clutter that developers skip. Skipped comments train…
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