Re: [doc RFA] Use of FIXME, TODO, etc. in new code is prohibited.

[Stan Shebs <stan@codesourcery.com>]

On 11/2/10 9:37 AM, Doug Evans wrote:
>
> +The use of @code{FIXME} and all similar comments in new code is prohibited.
> +The rule is to not write code that requires them.

I think there are a couple flavors of FIXME notes that we need to 
distinguish.

The first is an obvious but easily-fixed limitation; fixed-size buffer, 
not checking a return result, and the like.  It seems good for software 
quality that we make people fix those kinds of problems at submission time.

The other kind of FIXME is an enhancement idea that comes to mind while 
working on a patch, but that is out of scope.  Maybe you notice that a 
routine could be shared between GDB and GDBserver, or that an argument 
to a target vector method is now redundant.  We have a rule discouraging 
multi-change patches, and a volunteer's time might be insufficient for a 
separate followon patch.  In such a case we should record the idea 
*somewhere* - major design changes might be wiki fodder, but the body of 
the code seems like the right place for lesser worthwhile changes.  We 
could just recommend adding the note in running text, but a special 
marker helps it stand out.

Stan