Comment by not_kurt_godel
20 hours ago
That idea has nothing to do with source control that would replace git. It also already exists in the form of TODO tags and is handled exactly as you describe in JetBrains IDEs[0] (plus helpful semantic highlighting), and probably others as well.
I'm talking about a universal placeholder, something that you're free to use anywhere, in any language, for any part of a syntax tree that is missing.
A TODO comment can't do that because the syntax conflicts. For a regex the conflict would look like `//* TODO *//`, and for a comment it would look like `// /* TODO */`. Both have an existing meaning, and in neither case is that the meaning I want.
If I could have a magic "stuff goes here" character this would be solved. I often use · to represent the idea of this magic character. That gives you /·/ and //· at least, but of course it isn't safe to assume that no language will ever assign meaning to the · character so we can't literally use it as the universal gap. To get something universal, you need to move from using a sentinel token to using embedded/encoded data.
JetBrains supports TODOs in every language I use/am aware of.
Your syntax assertion doesn't make sense. Commented code is supported without interference in every common language I'm aware of.
> I often use · to represent the idea of this magic character
You can configure JetBrains to treat that character the same as a TODO.
(Not sure why I'm replying to what is probably AI-generated nonsense rambling, but hope that's helpful in case you're being earnest.)