Why is it important to use comments in Karel programs?

Using comments in Karel programs is crucial for enhancing understanding for future reference. Comments serve as annotations that help explain what specific parts of the code do, why certain decisions were made, or outline the overall logic of the program. This is especially valuable when revisiting code after some time or when sharing code with others. Clear comments can help others (or the original programmer) quickly grasp the intent behind the code, making it easier to maintain, debug, or extend in the future.

While reducing the size of the program or speeding up execution might seem beneficial, comments are typically not intended to fulfill those purposes. In fact, comments add to the overall size of the code since they are part of the text, and they do not influence the execution speed of the program because they are ignored by the Karel interpreter. Thus, the primary purpose of comments is to make the code more readable and understandable.