18

I was looking at the vimscript syntax file in the syntax directory, and under the keyword vimTodo were the words COMBAK, FIXME, TODO, and XXX. I can figure out what FIXME and TODO mean pretty easily, and I can guess what some might use XXX for, but I have no idea what COMBAK is for.

It must have a meaning of some sort, else there would be no reason to highlight it. I get that it's a code tag, but what does it mean? My best guess so far is an abbreviation for COMEBACK, though I doubt this.

Here is what I found so far:

Googling it got me nothing of use, and a google code search for COMBAK (with or without the quotes) got 0 results. I eventually Googled codetag "COMBAK" and found a single result, which uses it as a tag in a comment twice (a [ctrl+F] will find it): http://pastebin.com/H6mjbyBh.

The program is written in Vimscript, and contains both a vimscript syntax file and vimscript indent plugin file for lisp, along with some other massive functions.

theresawalrus
  • 347
  • 2
  • 19
  • 8
    Yes, it means "COME BACK". – romainl Dec 10 '14 at 21:43
  • When would this be used? and is it used frequently? Because I have never seen it before. Does it mean come back and fill in with a code you figure out later? Something else? – theresawalrus Dec 11 '14 at 00:52
  • 3
    "I have something more urgent to do, let's mark this place so that I can COMBAK to it later." That kind of thing rarely passes the commit stage, though, so it's rare to see it in production/released code. And, with the lightweight branching model available in today's DVCSes, that kind of practice has become kind of irrelevant. – romainl Dec 11 '14 at 07:31
  • 4
    Quite frankly, the author of this syntax file is known for an ... idiosyncratic programming style (I've heard it described in much harsher words). It is probably best to ignore and avoid this 'COMBAK' altogether. – glts Dec 11 '14 at 17:46
  • @thersawalrus what might some use `XXX` for? what do *you* use it for? – chharvey Nov 06 '17 at 16:47
  • @chharvey I could see it used as a catchall tag for things that aren't a FIXME (i.e. an error somewhere in the code) and TODO (additional features needed). At least that's how I use those two. – theresawalrus Dec 07 '17 at 10:20

1 Answers1

13

Yes, it literally means "COME BACK".

Vadim Kotov
  • 8,084
  • 8
  • 48
  • 62
Armali
  • 18,255
  • 14
  • 57
  • 171