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When I comment out code, I add a timestamp of when I disabled it. Then, when I come across commented code with a timestamp more than 6 months old, I go ahead a
by knodi123 12y ago
When I comment out code, I add a timestamp of when I disabled it. Then, when I come across commented code with a timestamp more than 6 months old, I go ahead and delete it. Best of both worlds!
- madeofpalk 12y agoOh lord. Best demonstration of Poe's Law right here.
- dshap 12y agoDoesn't "git blame" take care of your timestamps for you?
- gcb0 12y agono. vc will only take care if you have the history and know what you are looking. if you publish a final version only like this all that is lost. if you run a interpreted language you can't find the place of the old code while debugging at runtime. there are many reasons to leave code comments besides neglect. though in this case it's neglect :)
- agumonkey 12y agoHmm what a nice extension idea for emacs comment-dwim.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tempodox 12y agoYou still can put one on top of that, like this: #if 20141031 // Date as a valid number != 0 // Active code #else // Inactive code #endif Helps documenting experimental alternatives, even without SCM.
- philbo 12y agoThis is a similar to an idea that David Schnepper talked about at Velocity Ignite this year. It's only a five minute presentation but it blew me away and I'm keen to give it a try for real at some point. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29UXzfQWOhQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29UXzfQWOhQ
- lewispb 12y agoI like this alot, would anyone be keen to collaborate on a simple ruby gem to implement this 'tombstone' method?
- thebouv 12y agoWow, simple and short, but has already given me a ton of ideas. Saved and shared with our IS department too.
- ionforce 12y agoFunny how this is kinda Halloween-ish. Great share, thank you!
- dj-wonk 12y agoThis is thought provoking; I shared my reactions here: http://djwonk.tumblr.com/post/101423057084/tombstones-as-a-way-to-safely-remove-code http://djwonk.tumblr.com/post/101423057084/tombstones-as-a-w...
- robomartin 12y ago
- phkahler 12y agoI like that idea. I remove commented code when it's "old enough" but know how long it's actually been could be really helpful.
- akirk 12y agoI would be awesome if there were a plugin (for your favorite text editor) for that. It should be easy to add automatically and remove when you uncomment it.
- dj-wonk 12y agoPerhaps not a bad idea. One advantage to David Schnepper's suggestion (in the video above) is that the tombstone is executable code, which can lead to metrics and even automated code removal. Buyer beware!
- johnmaguire2013 12y agoGlad to hear this isn't an odd concept. When I see others have commented out code in our codebase, I do a quick git blame (Sublime Git ftw!) and if it's from the previous year I'll just delete it.