hello, everyone , i have another question

Clark Gaylord gaylord at dirtcheapemail.com
Wed Nov 16 03:26:06 PST 2005


Jon wrote:

>I offten discover what such "/* XXX */ " annotate  in source code of freebsd. what mean is "XXX"?
>  
>

These are "equivocation marks".  They are placeholders for "I'm not sure 
I want to do this and want an easy way to find it again so I can undo 
it."  Usually the intention is to come back and remove the equivocation 
marks once the code has passed some test (like: "it compiled! yea!")  In 
many cases, they may be entirely vestigial, but in others the author may 
have felt that the solution still wasn't right, even though it worked, 
and wanted a visual clue to that effect for the reader.

It is fair to say that the probability of bonehead code is somewhat 
higher in the vicinity of these marks.

I usually initial and date my equivocation marks to help myself (and 
others) recognize vestiges,  but this is an uncommon practice 
(unfortunately).  In public repositories some people won't sign to 
protect themselves from embarrassment to the casual reader.

--ckg



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