Re^2: Should I leave behind beautiful code or readable code?

[robot_tourist]

Comments are good. Do not avoid commenting. BUT... as another reply pointed out, comments have to be maintained as well. I like putting in javadoc-style comments, but I've encountered loads of places where it looks like someone has copied and pasted a function and somehow the comment block at the top describes something totally different from the actual procedure. And I will admit that I just left the erroneous comments as they were in most cases. The goal then is for code that is self-documenting and as far as possible only commenting on data structures, on side effects and any assumptions made about incoming data. In the OP's case, I didn't think the example was too bad and I think splitting it up too much could make it look more complicated and scary than it is.