[jboy]

Agreed about using intermediate variables.

What's better than comments to describe what the code does? CODE that describes what the code does. (Let the code describe WHAT the code does, and if necessary, the comments describe WHY the code does it like that.)

In C++, if I use an intermediate variable to decompose a complicated expression into easier-to-understand sub-expressions, I like to make the intermediate variable `const` to emphasize that it's an intermediate component.

[amirouche]

beautiful has it's value too. I prefer a code that creates paragraphs using an extra line break. A single comment can explain what each paragraph means. Reading (simply) a file is "open it, use it, close it", in my code it's three paragraph of code.

[Chris2048]

I hear this a lot, often in the for "Good code doesn't need comments", but I'm more than a little skeptical of this view.

I need actual examples to get on board, and not just the usual "idiot" programmer strawmen - actual examples that aren't obviously unreasonable.

My main reason for skepticism - Full, proper English sentences are capable of a lot more nuance, and precise semantics than whatever the programming-language syntax might support. I agree code can be written with more clarity, but it cannot substitute actual text, i.e. Code is not documentation.