This is why […] better

Sorry, what’s the subject of that?

I was just referring to my original question i.e. how I should write comments in my code to explain its working if I have already done so in the code itself

Interesting to see your opinion on how commenting shouldn’t be mandatory. I specifically go the extra mile to ensure my code is readable for everyone, by naming my variables and functions to be as self-explanatory as possible and breaking down long expressions to store chunks in variables. This is why I was feeling confused as to what more I could add to explain my code better, though I must admit there are still considerable complex portions in some of my projects that would appreciate similar simplification.

I believe you confused the ‘how’ of commenting the ‘why’ with ‘why’ of commenting the ‘why’, if that makes sense.

I am already aware of and totally agree with the need to document your code in this fashion for the convenience of others and self. What I am troubled about is its implementation in real life. How does one write comment that explains the ‘why’ of the code? How would I know if I haven’t accidentally written something that explains the ‘what’ instead or anything that is simply redundant? It seems like this portion is left out ‘as an exercise for the reader’.

Asking as a newbie programmer: how do you suggest we write comments that explain the ‘why’ part of the code? I understand writing comments explaining the ‘what’ part makes them redundant, but I feel like writing it the former way isn’t adding much help either. I mean, if I created code for a clock, is writing “It helps tell what time it is” better than writing “It is a clock” ?

It would really help if someone could give a code snippet that clearly demonstrates how commenting the ‘correct’ way is clearly better than the way we are used to.