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Annotations

Comments are useful when reading code. Since they can contain any text, you can use them to clarify your intent, make note of issues to address later, etc.

class Main {
    // TODO: Make this actually add one
    int addOne(int x) {
        return x + 2;
    }

    // The return value here will always be non-negative
    int absoluteValue(int x) {
        if (x < 0) {
            return -x;
        }
        else {
            return x;
        }
    }

    void main() {
        IO.println(addOne(5));
        IO.println(absoluteValue(-25));
    }
}

The problem with comments is that they are just text. It would be difficult to write a program that acts upon or uses information in a comment.

Annotations, which you can think of as "structured comments", are useful for this purpose.

class Main {
    @TODO("Make this actually add one")
    int addOne(int x) {
        return x + 2;
    }

    @NonNegative int absoluteValue(int x) {
        if (x < 0) {
            return -x;
        }
        else {
            return x;
        }
    }

    void main() {
        IO.println(addOne(5));
        IO.println(absoluteValue(-25));
    }
}