Comments and commit messages both matter. For different reasons. Comments are often wrong, for the wrong reasons. People that change code, but don't update the

Comments and commit messages both matter. For different reasons. Comments are often wrong, for the wrong reasons. People that change code, but don't update the comments to reflect the code change are evil. But then, people that put to much superfluous information in comments, that should just be left to the code, are also evil. BTW, if your code implements a part of a standard, try putting the standard, and what subsection, your code addresses. Just the reference not the text. 802.11G for example (old fart) or TA55, or RFC 1536. Whatever. Then list the date of the document and the subsection. I had to modify a Reed-Solomon implementation many years ago, and the original two authors based the implementation on a particular textbook. They gave the ISBN and then chapter/paragraph/table/illustration references on each block. I went and got a copy of the book, and it all lined up perfectly. Best documented code I have ever encountered.