"Not too long after starting at my new job," Franc wrote, "I came across a rather unique way of noting what code needed to be fixed."

"This was the message came up when I went to build."

------ Rebuild started: Project: Prod, Configuration: Debug .NET ------ Preparing resources... Updating references... Performing main compilation... E:\ProdSrc\ProductSettingsDALC.cs(82,8): warning CS0168: The variable 'SUSBSTITUTE_CODE' is declared but never used Build complete -- 0 errors, 1 warnings Building satellite assemblies...

"WTF?! I thought to myself. I opened the source file:

int SUSBSTITUTE_CODE; // We NEED to figure out what to do with the // settings for a company within one instance // At the moment the delivery methods are shared // but the Product settings are not!!

It took a lot not to laugh out too loud. SourceSafe showed me who the author was: he was my team lead, and he was sitting right behind me. I politely asked him to explain SUSBSTITUTE_CODE to me.

"You know," he replied, "no one actually cares for // TODO. I wanted to put the message where everyone will see it, and eventually fix the code."

He didn't respond when I mentioned that the code had been there for over six months.