This is something that is always stated by people who are opposed to comments, but I’ve never seen any such thing in practice. If being mislead by incorrect comments is so common, there should be a bunch of stories around about disasters caused by them - and I’ve never read a single such story.
One example was when a method’s documentation said that it would throw a certain exception. Turns out it was actually throwing a different exception (deep into the code), so no wonder why we never captured it in time.
Chances are that the comments quickly turn out of date and become incorrect. Misleading comments is worse than no comments.
This is something that is always stated by people who are opposed to comments, but I’ve never seen any such thing in practice. If being mislead by incorrect comments is so common, there should be a bunch of stories around about disasters caused by them - and I’ve never read a single such story.
I’ve seen it. That’s why I’m opposed to comments unless they really bring value (like explaining the why instead of the what).
OK, so let’s hear your story about how misleading comments caused a major (or even a minor) problem.
One example was when a method’s documentation said that it would throw a certain exception. Turns out it was actually throwing a different exception (deep into the code), so no wonder why we never captured it in time.