Re: Block Comments Or Rest-Of-Line Comments?

On 2024-03-21, Scott Lurndal <scott@slp53.sl.home> wrote:

Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> writes:

Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> writes:
[...]

And sometimes, when it's not a really a comment, but rather a block of
code I don't want right now:
>
#ifdef 0
...
#endif

>
I think you mean "#if 0".
>
I use that sometimes, but one disadvantage is that if you're viewing the
middle of a very large block of code, it can be hard to tell that it's
been "commented" out.

>
Often syntax highlighting (e.g. vim) will solve that.
>
In projects with many fingers in the pie, I generally prefer either a
descriptive (and undefined) macro name or a block comment in
the #if 0 region to indicate exactly _why_ it was not just removed
from the source file entirely.
>
Makes it easier for whomever is reading and/or maintaining the
code to follow it.

I have a simpler approach: commits which introduced commented-out
code, whether with #if 0, or any other means, shall not be merged.

I don't perpetrate that in my open source projects, and "-1" such
submissions at work.

When someone wants to remove code, I encourage them to actually
delete it. The comment about why it was deleted goes into the
commit log.

Usually people are relieved; deleting it was what they wanted, but they
weren't sure due the code not being their area or whatever.

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