I have seen this happen over and over again in programmer forums:

Somebody asks a simple question using 3 sentences. Five people don't bother to read the question but "answer" it with 9 sentences.

Programmers don't want to read - they like to write. So let's stop this nonsense about writing comments.
Nobody is going to read them.

Many people consider a good code to have as many comment lines as code lines. It's time to double productivity - skip the comments and write double the amount of code in the some amount of time.

Remember - you heard this idea here on CrazyOnTap first!

Which is why I love GhostDoc for VS.NET
Right click, "Comment this", done.

(as long as you use good names for your properties/methods)

codesmith + GhostDoc

comment generation via code generation

holy shit, it's self aware, we've created SkyNet

I comment but I don't really intend anyone to read them.  I think the value is just in writing them...  if your comment takes 5 lines to write, your code probably sucks.

I just wrote and refined a program, 55 lines of code, with only 2 short sentence comments.  Only reason I even did that was so that someone skimming wouldn't have to bother looking at the code, they can just read the comment and say "Oh!"

_Really_ good comments would be ones to explain the business purpose of what the code is for, or code change is for.

+1 LorB

Also, for places where you get very abstract, it's good to de-abstractify via the comments and provide some real world context.

In general I find better variable and method naming helps more than commenting though. I'd rather read code with bad comments and good variable names rather than good comments and variable names like x, a, b, c, link, objectb, etc.

my typical inline comments:

# I know this bit sucks, but I really haven't figured out a better way yet

# this method is crud, but its still used by module XYZ, so we can't prune it yet

I do use perldoc though, to document API methods. That is just to say what the methods expect and how they behave.

>Nobody is going to read them.
I'm currently stuck in a bondage & discipline project with a client that obsesses about documentation. They're in the finance industry, so when the paperwork is about the size of their downtown office, the project is about ready. However, no one reads anything, except for IM which I utterly despise, yet they love to play gotcha with one paragraph from one document that I may or may not have written. Or worse, they can't be bothered to RTFM so I get calls all the time. In short, I am a condom, with the goal of keeping my employer from getting any of this client on them (except for the money).

How to increase productivity? Heh, I got them to block this site from work.

Me, I was thinking that getting rid of at least one layer of management would do it.  Boss man's demotivational practices have not helped productivity here.