> It would be nice if incoming developer-support AI could start tackling this, by surfacing impacted comments and even "linting" them for applicability and accuracy.
That only applies to comments that address what the code is doing or how it does what the comment says. It does absolutely nothing for the most critical type of comments: the ones that say why the developer decided to do it a particular way. Maybe they tried it three other ways and this was the most efficient way. Maybe they chose this way because it matches up with a business requirement that things be done in a particular order (regardless of efficiency). Maybe it must be done that way for consistency with another part of the system that is only obvious from the comment.
It will be a long, long time before AI will be able to reasonably vet such comments for accuracy. Until then, comment your darn code!
That only applies to comments that address what the code is doing or how it does what the comment says. It does absolutely nothing for the most critical type of comments: the ones that say why the developer decided to do it a particular way. Maybe they tried it three other ways and this was the most efficient way. Maybe they chose this way because it matches up with a business requirement that things be done in a particular order (regardless of efficiency). Maybe it must be done that way for consistency with another part of the system that is only obvious from the comment.
It will be a long, long time before AI will be able to reasonably vet such comments for accuracy. Until then, comment your darn code!