FIXME - A Smart FIXME Macro

Introduction

If you are using Visual Studio, this FIXME macro will help you not to forget to fix your code before you release it. During debug build, this macro will be ignored; during release build, you will get an error message which will point to the code you need to fix. You can use this macro to remind you, for example, to update the version string, or to fix some debug code which should not be part of the release build.

Example

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <windows.h>

FIXME //update version string before release
int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
  FIXME
  printf("password is *bill*\n");
  return 0;
}

The above code will produce the following output during release build:

1>building...
1>test.cpp
1>.\test.cpp(4) : error C666: found FIXME in release build!
1>.\test.cpp(8) : error C666: found FIXME in release build!
1>pragmatest - 2 errors, 0 warnings
========== Build: 0 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

You can click on the error message to jump directly to the FIXME keyword.

How It Works

Put the following code into stdafx.h:

#define __STR2__(x) #x
#define __STR1__(x) __STR2__(x)
#define __LOC2__ __FILE__ "("__STR1__(__LINE__)") : "

#ifdef NDEBUG
  #define FIXME __pragma(message(__LOC2__ "error C666: found FIXME in release build!"))
#else
  #define FIXME
#endif

The FIXME macro is defined depending on if you make a debug or release build. On debug build, #define FIXME is used, which does nothing. On release build, pragma(message(__LOC2__ "error C666: found FIXME in release build!")) is set. It will display the file and the line number of the FIXME macro in the output window. The trick to display a clickable error message is from the Message with style article.

History

• 21^st May, 2009: Initial post
• 22^nd May, 2009: Minor update