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    Although, I've heard it said comments are apologies (for bad/hard-to-read code)... there's a good chance you could have written it better. I guess you could say a similar things about parentheses. Commented Jun 11, 2013 at 21:05
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    Another aspect of correctness is preserving it through changes: While the original developer may get precedence right without parentheses when he first writes the code with the purpose and context fresh in mind, he (or another) who comes along later and doesn't remember all the details may well mess it up when they add more terms to the expression. (That was mostly implied already but I felt like it was worth emphasizing.) Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 13:33
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    @LarsH, thanks, I added this explicitly to the answer. Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 13:36
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    +1 "They provide confirmation of the developer's intent." - any programmer (OK, maybe not all, but all of those that reside here....) can work out what the compiler will do with the most complex logic. Absolutely no one can work out what the original developer intended (Including himself) a few weeks down the track for anything beyond the simplest..... Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 3:24
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    I think @JeffBridgman was referencing a fairly well known standpoint of "comments can sometimes be a code smell". E.g. see Jeff Atwood's summary which includes the question "Can you refactor the code so the comments aren't required?". I'd argue that if your comment is explaining why your code is so damn un-intuitive, it can definitely be a hint that something's wrong. At times like this, it's a good idea to simplify the code. I completely agree with your actual answer though and take on parentheses, however. Commented Jun 14, 2013 at 11:18