It is rare to find code that comprehensively explains (without comments) why it exists, or often more importantly, why some superficially-equivalent code doesn’t exist there.
Comments when done correctly are vital.
Comments when done correctly are vital.
Correctly done comments are a one in a million thing. In my experience, they are utterly surpassed by "i = i + 1; // increment i" style comments. (Seriously, I'm working on code written by someone who teaches programming and he writes this type of comment.)