[zorga]

> do other HNers also feel that a high comment:code ratio probably indicates quality?

Nope, imho code with lots of comments is generally crappy code. It's littered with comments to explain the sloppy code they couldn't make clear because they're bad programmers. Good programmers use few comments, write simple clear code that doesn't require explaining, and leave comments about why something was done rather than simply trying to explain what the code does.

Code never lies, comments often do; don't trust comments that explain the code.

[vectorEQ]

i would say like you say it depends on the quality of the comments documenting the code. if they are correct then it shows a thorough understanding of what is written in code, apart from that a complete stranger to the code can easily find what they need. however, like you said, you will need to maintain comments more than code, which is a pain and will lead to inconsistencies in the comments, leading to crappy file with meaningless junk scattered in it, which in turn means you can never trust comments, and it's therefore kind of useless to have. :d but since that's a circular argument, and those tend to be just cynical in nature, i do prefer properly commented code above uncommented code. i'd do it less verbosely myself so i don't need to maintain so much of it though, trying to keep it more consistent over time.