[Python-Dev] XXX do we need a new policy?

[Benjamin Peterson]

On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 6:04 PM, Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Barry Warsaw <barry at python.org> wrote:
>> On Nov 3, 2008, at 6:39 PM, Benjamin Peterson wrote:
>>
>>> Grepping through Python's sources tells me that we have over 2,000
>>> "XXX" comments. The thing that irks me about them is that the have a
>>> very slow rate of being resolved, since they usually act more as
>>> "notes to self" rather than easily attainable tasks.
>>>
>>> So, I propose that we adopt a policy similar to Twisted's: All "XXX"
>>> comments must have an issue in the tracker and an accompanying link
>>> with the source code. That way we'll have a forum for discussing the
>>> changes and deciding whether they are reasonable enough to
>>> implemented.
>>
>> We have a very similar policy here at work.  Sadly I don't think it does
>> much on actually resolving the issues.  XXX bugs tend to be pretty minor in
>> the scheme of things and they're almost always lower on the priority list
>> than everything else.
>>
>> That being said, we recognize that XXX bugs incur "technical debt" and
>> reducing that debt is something we're devoting Real Time to doing.
>>
>> I see that Guido is not keen on the idea, and I'm not sure my observations
>> help sway things one way or the other.  OTOH, it would be nice if at least
>> we always add our own identifier (initials, nick, email address) and a date
>> to the XXX so we at least know who was talking about what.
>
> At Google we use TODO(<username>): Blah, blah. I don't think ading a
> date would help much but I wouldn't be opposed to this.

That reminds me of the other problem with XXX. They get out of date
without being removed. I've even seen an XXX comment followed by
another asking, "Is this still valid?".

You're probably right that adding a date would help much unless we
agreed to remove old comments with little value after a year or so.


-- 
Cheers,
Benjamin Peterson
"There's nothing quite as beautiful as an oboe... except a chicken
stuck in a vacuum cleaner."