Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason  [off-list ref] writes:

+/**
+ * Show the date given an initialized "struct date_mode" (usually from
+ * the DATE_MODE() macro).
+ */
 const char *show_date(timestamp_t time, int timezone, const struct date_mode *mode);

It's a bit of wasted bytes to explain "show_date()" as "show".  In
the context of this function, the verb "show" in its name does not
mean emitting to any output stream, but return a short-lived memory
stuffed with a  date string formatted according to the date mode
that the caller needs to either immediately consume or strdup() away
if it wants to use it later, which is a lot more helpful thing to
tell to the readers.

    /**
     * Format <'time', 'timezone'> into static memory according to
     * 'mode' and return it.
     */

or something along that line?