Like most devs, I often leave notes directly in the codebase I am working on. Forgetful humans need reminders! In the past, I would try to use a format that would stand out when I review the file later.
I would speckle my code with entries like the following:
//————-TODO ——————–
const myLameCodeBlock = function(someDumbList){
//Get list of items
//Iterate through list
//Do something interesting
}
I found myself using a lot of dashes or equal signs coupled with CAPITAL LETTERs to help draw the eye.
VSCode with an extension has the ability to bring COLOR into the mix – a much better solution to draw your eye.
- Go out and get the TODO Highlight extension and install it. “Preferences” then “Extensions”. A search for TODO should bring up the one we want. https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=wayou.vscode-todo-highlight
- Add your desired highlight settings to the settings.json file. I like to keep mine at the end.
You can find the file via “Preferences” then “Settings”
In the upper right there will be a small icon to open the settings.json file:
Find the last curly close bracket and place your color settings
The four main highlighters I use:
//TODO
- A placeholder for code I need to complete or implement.
//BUG
- When I know there is a bug, but don’t have time or context to fix it right now
//TEST
- I need to test this code
//REFACTOR
- Let’s optimize or take a better approach.
//My Settings.json entry for TODO Highlight
//TODO HIGHLIGHT STUFF
“todohighlight.isCaseSensitive”: true, “todohighlight.keywords”: [ { “text”: “//TODO”, “color”: “#333”, “backgroundColor”: “#E10000” }, { “text”: “//BUG”, “color”: “#333”, “backgroundColor”: “#FFD800” }, { “text”: “//TEST”, “color”: “#333”, “backgroundColor”: “#59D5FF” }, { “text”: “//REFACTOR”, “color”: “#333”, “backgroundColor”: “#EC5EFF” } ]
The result is cleaner yet is much more effective in drawing your attention!
Now just enter your keywords formatted correctly (I chose to use double-slash comments in the example – you can choose whatever you like!)
I hope you find this tidbit useful!
Brad