I don't really think this goes against what mikekchar said, though. Take your own example (the legacy oracle client): The code you're using to escape those spe

I don't really think this goes against what mikekchar said, though. Take your own example (the legacy oracle client): The code you're using to escape those specific characters should ideally be written in such a way that its intent is obvious even to a novice reading it. For the novice, then, the question shifts from "WTF does this do?" to "why is this here?", which would be a great example what to actually write comments for: context. Imagine you're writing some very math-heavy library. Ideally, I shouldn't be a language expert to be able to see what your code does. This still doesn't help me if I don't understand the underlying math, however. Even hints like "this operation is called XY and can be used to Z" may be very helpful if someone wants to get a hold of what it does. With that, you can look up literature for this specific part.