The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

PiisAWheeL · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

lanmind:
Philip Newton:
The best bit is the condition which starts:
if (event.keyCode == 18 && event.keyCode == 8
Or perhaps they’re already ready for quantum computing, where the key code can be 8 and 18 simultaneously?
I don'y dirty my hands with javascript, but isn't this the sort of code you would need to write to capture shift-tab and the like?

Of course, trwtf is disabling keyboard navigation.

No. This code disables alt+backspace. Backspace is previous page in ie. Not sure what alt+backspace does but it doesnt do anything on my browser.

chubertdev · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

PiisAWheeL:
No. This code disables alt+backspace. Backspace is previous page in ie. Not sure what alt+backspace does but it doesnt do anything on my browser.

They may have been thinking of Alt+Left.

I can just see the developer creating this, testing it by pressing Alt+Backspace, oblivious to the fact that they had the wrong key combination.

But just like the developer, I won't over-think this.

SilentRunner · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

I hate it when someone puts a big gray blob in front of my face and says, "Hey, look at this!".

Please, explain what the hell that gray blob is all about.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

This reminds me of the time I had to catch some particularly tricking keystroke combinations originating from client terminals. Interesting story: There were perhaps a dozen keystroke combinations that needed handling, including a variety of modifier doubles and triple chords. Rather than implement the logic chain as a long series of if statements, I opted instead to compile the set of combinations into an internal memory structure with a dictionary lookup. Including sufficient documentation I believe I completed the task in no more than three hours. Still haven't heard of any problems to this day so I must have nailed it.

Anketam · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

jugis:
Anketam:
Gyxi:
Anketam:
Does Java even allow this to compile (I don't normally use Java)? I thought that 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' would throw an exception since ' is reserved for chars not strings.

This comment is TRWTF
Your mom is TRWTF.

When all else fails, resort to name calling.

Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

Believe it or not there is a ton of programming work that does not involve JavaScript. As such I have yet to even work on a program that uses Java or JavaScript, so my knowledge of both is pretty limited hence my question for clarification. It is better that a programmer ask questions then just assume they know everything or else their code will end up on this website.

PiisAWheeL · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

Anketam:
Believe it or not there is a ton of programming work that does not involve JavaScript. As such I have yet to even work on a program that uses Java or JavaScript, so my knowledge of both is pretty limited hence my question for clarification.

There is also google. It could tell you that javascript and java are about as similar to each other as boat and car. 2 modes of transportation in completly different contexts. But I'm just trollin'. (Yes that was also a boat pun.)

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

El Pollo Diablo:
Apparantly they have some German speaking customers, considering the existence of www-dot-bankofscotland-dot-de (Bad akismet *slap*. Enterily relevant stuff, here).

Shouldn't that be www-Punkt-bankofscotland-Punkt-de

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

Anketam:
Believe it or not there is a ton of programming work that does not involve JavaScript. As such I have yet to even work on a program that uses Java or JavaScript, so my knowledge of both is pretty limited hence my question for clarification. It is better that a programmer ask questions then just assume they know everything or else their code will end up on this website.

But guessing and speculating wildly is so much easier than doing research!

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

PiisAWheeL:
Anketam:
Believe it or not there is a ton of programming work that does not involve JavaScript. As such I have yet to even work on a program that uses Java or JavaScript, so my knowledge of both is pretty limited hence my question for clarification.
There is also google. It could tell you that javascript and java are about as similar to each other as boat and car. 2 modes of transportation in completly different contexts. But I'm just trollin'. (Yes that was also a boat pun.)

I saw a FAQ on Javascript once that included the question, "What is the relationship between Javascript and Java?". The answer they gave was, "The names begin with the same four letters."

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

What a curious comment. Suppose someone said, "Seriously, if after 60 years of jets an aeronautical engineer -- regardless of when they started calling themselves one -- hasn't touched jet engines, please step away from the drafting board."

Because after all, now that jets have been invented, why would anyone design, build, and maintain propellor-driven aircraft?

Now that the automobile has been invented, why would anyone build a boat?

Now that laser printers have been invented, why would anyone make a pencil?

Etc etc. Just because a new technology has come along doesn't necessarily make all previously-existing technologies obsolete. And given that there's still a use for the older technologies, it stands to reason that some people will continue to work on the older technology and not have the time or inclination to work on the new technology. We can't all do everything. People specialize.

PS I spend about 95% of my time developing web apps. But I recognize the value of people who make desktop apps. Like the folks who make MW Word, Eclipse, Photoshop, etc.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

Ryan E:
I really like the function above that one in the js file:
function returnFalse () {return false;}

Why just use false, when you can returnFalse()?

You must be an object-oriented programmer. Why use item.property when you can do item.propertyGetter()?

And why do y=parse(x), when you can do

myParser=parselib.parser.getParser()
myInitializer=myParser.initializerGenerator.newDefaultInitializer(parselib.DEFAULT_VALUE)
myInitializer.initializeInitializer()
myParser.initialize(myInitializer.run())
myParser.loadInput(x)
myParser.run()
result=myParser.getResult()
y=result.get()

?

Of course, before you even

import parselib

you'll have to read the documentation of parselib_simple, libparse, libdissect (a fork of libparse with some elements from parselib), open_parser_lib (which was the result of the merging of free_parse_reader and parse2000.advanced), and MS_PARSE (free for non-commercial use), to see which one suits best your needs.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

TopTension:
jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

You may not be aware of it, but not all is Internet in IT. I've been writing programs for 30 years and still didn't have to touch HTML, believe it or not. Nothing wrong with the internet, but IT is more than websites.

Question is: how can you not be even a little curious how to build a web page in the 2nd half of your career? So, even though you've been programming mainframes for 30 years, you're no more advanced user of a browser than my wife (who knows how to facebook and gmail, and that's about it)? You can't be serious... I'm not impressed by your 30 years at all.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

jay:
jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

What a curious comment. Suppose someone said, "Seriously, if after 60 years of jets an aeronautical engineer -- regardless of when they started calling themselves one -- hasn't touched jet engines, please step away from the drafting board."

Because after all, now that jets have been invented, why would anyone design, build, and maintain propellor-driven aircraft?

Now that the automobile has been invented, why would anyone build a boat?

Now that laser printers have been invented, why would anyone make a pencil?

Etc etc. Just because a new technology has come along doesn't necessarily make all previously-existing technologies obsolete. And given that there's still a use for the older technologies, it stands to reason that some people will continue to work on the older technology and not have the time or inclination to work on the new technology. We can't all do everything. People specialize.

PS I spend about 95% of my time developing web apps. But I recognize the value of people who make desktop apps. Like the folks who make MW Word, Eclipse, Photoshop, etc.

The point is: every one of those desktop or server developers are probably using Internet to research and learn, at least at home (in case their retard employer doesn't allow them to progress). If during last 15 years every one of those never stumbled upon a snippet of HTML and JavaScript, I don't know what to think of them. Even if they haven't stumbled upon those, they should have, by definition of being a developer, at some point, show at least a small amount of interest to just look at it (before they decide to not learn it, for example). E.g. I never wrote a line of Java, but I've seen snippets hundreds of times, and I'd feel confident to dive into it, if I had to. I don't get it...

Anketam · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

In my case I have only been an official software developer for 4 years. I have done stuff in college with php (which lets not even go there), and post-college for random non work things which did involve the Internet I have used aspx and Grails. But none of my professional work has involved JavaScript (nor Java, hence why I accidently mistook the code snippet for Java and was confused). JavaScript, Java (and several of its frameworks), NoSQL, and Ruby are on my todo list of things to learn.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

quibus:
TopTension:
jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

You may not be aware of it, but not all is Internet in IT. I've been writing programs for 30 years and still didn't have to touch HTML, believe it or not. Nothing wrong with the internet, but IT is more than websites.

Question is: how can you not be even a little curious how to build a web page in the 2nd half of your career? So, even though you've been programming mainframes for 30 years, you're no more advanced user of a browser than my wife (who knows how to facebook and gmail, and that's about it)? You can't be serious... I'm not impressed by your 30 years at all.

How can you not be curious how to build a desktop app like Word or Excel, which is much more complicated than a web page, and has been around longer?

Answer is... some people just don't care, just as I completely don't care how my CPU works.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

if (event.keyCode == 18 && event.keyCode == 8  [SNIP]

Most people are missing the ingeniousness of this code. Instead of using event.altKey, the original programmer has realized that most people don't press alt and backspace together. Instead, users generally lead with the alt key and at a barely noticeable span of time later, follow with the backspace.

From this realization, we expert readers can see, that when the alt key is pressed, the first condition will register true, and then the backspace key will be pressed in ample time for the second condition to be tested.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

jugis / quibus; what a fsckhead!

When is the last time you coded in assembly language? How about even in straight C?

When is the last time you coded source for a language rather than just used a language?

Do you know the difference between a spinlock, a semaphore, and a mutex?

Do you understand the electronics behind an address line change from a 0 to a 1?

When is the last time you coded at ring 0?

When is the last time you coded for an embedded processor like keyboard or wifi?

Do you understand how the speed of light limits the length of transmission lines in very high speed processors?

Do you understand the reason that silicon must be doped for standard bipolar and FET transistors to work?

All of these things and uncountable more are performed regularly so that people like you don't have to know about them.

I have coded in HTML, I have coded scripts that code HTML, but I don't presume that everyone has had the time in their long life to learn and use everything.

You must be really young to be so foolish. That is the reason they don't allow people so young to high office.

Sorry (everyone else) for the rant, but a man's got to know his limits.

snoofle · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

jay:
jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

What a curious comment. Suppose someone said, "Seriously, if after 60 years of jets an aeronautical engineer -- regardless of when they started calling themselves one -- hasn't touched jet engines, please step away from the drafting board." after all, now that jets have been invented, why would anyone design, build, and maintain propellor-driven aircraft?

Now that the automobile has been invented, why would anyone build a boat?

Now that laser printers have been invented, why would anyone make a pencil?

Etc etc. Just because a new technology has come along doesn't necessarily make all previously-existing technologies obsolete. And given that there's still a use for the older technologies, it stands to reason that some people will continue to work on the older technology and not have the time or inclination to work on the new technology. We can't all do everything. People specialize.

PS I spend about 95% of my time developing web apps. But I recognize the value of people who make desktop apps. Like the folks who make MW Word, Eclipse, Photoshop, etc.

Agreed! Although I've been working on financial applications for close to 30 years (all of which were supposed to eventually replace the mainframes on which ran the COBOL programs on which the businesses kept their books and records), I have yet to hear of anyone actually decommissioning any COBOL program, let alone shutting down a mainframe.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the odd major COBOL program has been tossed, but it's the exception, not the rule.

For the record, I've worked professionally in SGML (long before HTML), Basic, Pascal, FORTRAN (assorted), assorted assemblers, SNOBOL, ALGOL, Ada, C, C++ and Java and only a smattering of HTML. I once had the, erm, pleasure of debugging a COBOL program. I have never worked in Perl, Javascript, or anything .NET yet they clearly have their value.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

A year ago, today, never, yes, sort of, I don't think I have, never, I can imagine it, yes. Sorry I'm not much of a hardware person.

And in his defense, the initial WTF is not not having programmed in Javascript, but rather assuming that '' means char.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

With the prevalence of the Web over the last 18+ years, if you are a programmer and haven't taken any kind of look into HTML then you are what I consider to be the worst kind of programmer: the uninquisitive kind.

I'm not talking about javascript. I'm not talking about XML. I'm not talking about CSS. I'm talking about plain old HTML. And I don't care if your job involves writing microcode for some embedded chip that won't get within a mile of a Web browser; the fact that you're on this site mean you're exposed to HTML on a regular basis. I just don't get how anyone could not care.

(I do, however, get that there are people who don't care. And I form an opinion of them based on that.)

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

I love the logic of switching to German error messages.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

Not:
quibus:
TopTension:
jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

You may not be aware of it, but not all is Internet in IT. I've been writing programs for 30 years and still didn't have to touch HTML, believe it or not. Nothing wrong with the internet, but IT is more than websites.

Question is: how can you not be even a little curious how to build a web page in the 2nd half of your career? So, even though you've been programming mainframes for 30 years, you're no more advanced user of a browser than my wife (who knows how to facebook and gmail, and that's about it)? You can't be serious... I'm not impressed by your 30 years at all.

How can you not be curious how to build a desktop app like Word or Excel, which is much more complicated than a web page, and has been around longer?

Answer is... some people just don't care, just as I completely don't care how my CPU works.

I'm willing to bet that at least every Visual Studio user (thus, developer on MS platform) knows basics about desktop programming, even though they may be spending most of their time working on web apps. Yes, they may be a lousy desktop developer, but they certainly know how to read that code. Even if that's not the case with other web developers, the fact is that EVERYONE who calls themselves a developer uses Internet (browser, HTML, JavaScript) and not being curious to view source code and how the hell all that functions is beyond me. But, winning this argument with you is impossible. Enjoy your COBOL.

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

JJ:
With the prevalence of the Web over the last 18+ years, if you are a programmer and haven't taken any kind of look into HTML then you are what I consider to be the worst kind of programmer: the uninquisitive kind.
I'm not talking about javascript. I'm not talking about XML. I'm not talking about CSS. I'm talking about plain old HTML. And I don't care if your job involves writing microcode for some embedded chip that won't get within a mile of a Web browser; the fact that you're on this site mean you're exposed to HTML on a regular basis. I just don't get how anyone could not care.

(I do, however, get that there are people who don't care. And I form an opinion of them based on that.)

Thank you, Lord - at least one sane here. Your (and mine) arguments are relatively (more than not) sound. It's almost like being a driver for 30 years and not know how to change a tire (or RECOGNIZE one, which is more accurate comparison here).

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

cg:
jugis / quibus; what a fsckhead!
When is the last time you coded in assembly language? How about even in straight C?

When is the last time you coded source for a language rather than just used a language?

Do you know the difference between a spinlock, a semaphore, and a mutex?

Do you understand the electronics behind an address line change from a 0 to a 1?

When is the last time you coded at ring 0?

When is the last time you coded for an embedded processor like keyboard or wifi?

Do you understand how the speed of light limits the length of transmission lines in very high speed processors?

Do you understand the reason that silicon must be doped for standard bipolar and FET transistors to work?

All of these things and uncountable more are performed regularly so that people like you don't have to know about them.

I have coded in HTML, I have coded scripts that code HTML, but I don't presume that everyone has had the time in their long life to learn and use everything.

You must be really young to be so foolish. That is the reason they don't allow people so young to high office.

Sorry (everyone else) for the rant, but a man's got to know his limits.

I think you're a dumbass. No, I don't know any of those things, but that's so beyond the point, and I'm not going to waste my time explaining that to you.

In the context of comparing knowing how to change a tire on a car: every mechanic and automotive engineer knows the mechanics of driving, but you cannot expect every driver to know the mechanics of car engine. Yet you can expect most drivers to know mechanics of changing a tire. There will always be drivers who don't want to (women and male-pussies), and there will always be drivers who physically cannot, but not being curious to KNOW how a tire is changed is plain incompetence. I piss on your 30 years of Assembly and COBOL. You probably create crap on daily basis.

chubertdev · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

if (navigator.appName == 'Netscape')
   alert('Du werdest einen krankenschwester brauchen!');
   return returnFalse();
}

Cookie if you know what that is from.

Maurits · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
F:
And most of the Javascript WTFs result from letting idiots write code. Just like every other language ...
B...b...but he can't be an idiot! He knew how to make a square root function from bailing wire and a hockey ticket!

It's baling wire; for tying things up into bales, not for getting water out of a boat.

Coyne · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

Nick:
Philip Newton:
The best bit is the condition which starts:
if (event.keyCode == 18 && event.keyCode == 8
Or perhaps they’re already ready for quantum computing, where the key code can be 8 and 18 simultaneously?
LMAO. Schrödinger's "event.keyCode"

if (event.keyCode==8 && event.keyCode==18) ... true...
---snip---
event.openBox();

Darn! When will I ever learn to open the box first!

2012-09-19 Reply Admin

quibus:
I think you're a dumbass. No, I don't know any of those things, but that's so beyond the point, and I'm not going to waste my time explaining that to you.

That point being that you are retarded?

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

I can so ausgeführt werden!!

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

jugis:
Seriously, if after about 17 years of Internet a developer - regardless of when they started calling themselves one - hasn't touched HTML (and, with it, JavaScript; and then some), please step away from the fucking computer.

Seriously, fuck you. There are plenty of people who develop pretty darn important software without ever having to touch anything web-related. What you said is just the polar opposite of "If after about 17 years of Internet a developer - yada yada - hasn't touched Cobol , please step away from the fucking computer." and just about as smart a thing to say.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

DavidN:
Aaaaagh! That's... appalling, but it isn't even the worst thing about the Bank of Scotland's online system. A while ago, I had to reset my security information, a step which looked like a fairly innocuous "set up security question/answers" page - but I absolutely couldn't convince the form to submit...
You had to select three security questions from pick lists (what is your mother's maiden name, what was the make and model of your first car, and so on), and then type in an entirely custom question and answer for the fourth one. It was the custom question field that seemed to be the problem - all the other fields appeared to be all right, and I only ever got an unhelpful "Please set: Your own choice of question" error message when I tried to submit the form. So I initially thought that some overengineered security check was marking my question as being too common, or not forming a sentence it could parse, or something of equal silliness.

But then I tore into the Javascript of the page, and realized that their question field was subject to the same validation check as the rest of the fields - you can have no spaces or special characters in your question (such as, fairly importantly, a question mark), or it won't be accepted. Once I pared my question down to "whatisyourfavouritecolour", I could finally get through.

I have to wonder if they didn't notice a sharp drop in the number of online accounts being created...

Why would you expect the programmers to care?

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Sebastian Buchannon:
This reminds me of the time I had to catch some particularly tricking keystroke combinations originating from client terminals. Interesting story: There were perhaps a dozen keystroke combinations that needed handling, including a variety of modifier doubles and triple chords. Rather than implement the logic chain as a long series of if statements, I opted instead to compile the set of combinations into an internal memory structure with a dictionary lookup. Including sufficient documentation I believe I completed the task in no more than three hours. Still haven't heard of any problems to this day so I must have nailed it.

Either that, or the first person to try to fix it threw it away and started afresh.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

BlackKnight:
El Pollo Diablo:
Apparantly they have some German speaking customers, considering the existence of www-dot-bankofscotland-dot-de (Bad akismet *slap*. Enterily relevant stuff, here).

Shouldn't that be www-Punkt-bankofscotland-Punkt-de

Only if you're not worried about people asking "what's this Puntk?"

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Ben Jammin:
if (event.keyCode == 18 && event.keyCode == 8  [SNIP]
Most people are missing the ingeniousness of this code. Instead of using event.altKey, the original programmer has realized that most people don't press alt and backspace together. Instead, users generally lead with the alt key and at a barely noticeable span of time later, follow with the backspace.
From this realization, we expert readers can see, that when the alt key is pressed, the first condition will register true, and then the backspace key will be pressed in ample time for the second condition to be tested.

... in a different invocation of the event handler, where it will also fail to satisfy the test.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Maurits:
¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
F:
And most of the Javascript WTFs result from letting idiots write code. Just like every other language ...
B...b...but he can't be an idiot! He knew how to make a square root function from bailing wire and a hockey ticket!

It's baling wire; for tying things up into bales, not for getting water out of a boat.

Ah. That might explain my problem ...

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Though, many, if not most, web developers cannot seriously be considered developers.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

quibus:
cg:
jugis / quibus; what a fsckhead!
When is the last time you coded in assembly language? How about even in straight C?

When is the last time you coded source for a language rather than just used a language?

Do you know the difference between a spinlock, a semaphore, and a mutex?

Do you understand the electronics behind an address line change from a 0 to a 1?

When is the last time you coded at ring 0?

When is the last time you coded for an embedded processor like keyboard or wifi?

Do you understand how the speed of light limits the length of transmission lines in very high speed processors?

Do you understand the reason that silicon must be doped for standard bipolar and FET transistors to work?

All of these things and uncountable more are performed regularly so that people like you don't have to know about them.

I have coded in HTML, I have coded scripts that code HTML, but I don't presume that everyone has had the time in their long life to learn and use everything.

You must be really young to be so foolish. That is the reason they don't allow people so young to high office.

Sorry (everyone else) for the rant, but a man's got to know his limits.

I think you're a dumbass. No, I don't know any of those things, but that's so beyond the point, and I'm not going to waste my time explaining that to you.

In the context of comparing knowing how to change a tire on a car: every mechanic and automotive engineer knows the mechanics of driving, but you cannot expect every driver to know the mechanics of car engine. Yet you can expect most drivers to know mechanics of changing a tire. There will always be drivers who don't want to (women and male-pussies), and there will always be drivers who physically cannot, but not being curious to KNOW how a tire is changed is plain incompetence. I piss on your 30 years of Assembly and COBOL. You probably create crap on daily basis.

There is a great deal of both men and women that have no fucking clue how to change tires. Even a fair amount of the ones that believe they do have no idea. I've worked in a tire shop, and I've seen enough fuckwits screw the basics of changing tires...

As far as programming and HTML goes, I could easily learn to do web development when the need arises, since I have the basics of development nailed. Much like random joe blow mechanic can easily change tires on a car if need be even if he never did it before in his life. That does not mean I have any interrest in HTML and it's ilk at the present time. There are lots of other shit that I spend my time learning. Not very different to how I expect my sodding car to work without me needing to change engine parts, tires and what not all the time, I expect the web to work without me needing to know exactly how it works. If it breaks, I notify the people that can fix it. Its their fucking job. Just as it is my fucking job to make operators capable of charging for your cell phone usage. you have no idea about any of the protocols, systems or principles that guide telecom, but Im pretty damn sure that you still use cell phones all the fucking time.

There, did I get enough curse words in the post for this framing forum?

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Maurits:
It's baling wire; for tying things up into bales, not for getting water out of a boat.

Any idiot can tie things up in bales with baling wire. Only a true MacGyver can bail out a boat with it.

So I say youre wrong.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Gary:
Pebs:
So, to fix it, Wladimir installed Firefox or Chrome for his father?
Both Firefox and Chrome have "Netscape" in the navigator.appName variable. IFAIK, it's one of those things that's just there for backwards compatibility reasons to support legacy JavaScript code.

Of course the code tests for equality not substring.

Not a WTF.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/window.navigator.appName:
Note: Do not rely on this property to return the correct browser name. In Gecko-based browsers (like Firefox) and WebKit-based browsers (like Chrome and Safari) the returned string is "Netscape".

QJo · 2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Anketam:
In my case I have only been an official software developer for 4 years. I have done stuff in college with php (which lets not even go there), and post-college for random non work things which did involve the Internet I have used aspx and Grails. But none of my professional work has involved JavaScript (nor Java, hence why I accidently mistook the code snippet for Java and was confused). JavaScript, Java (and several of its frameworks), NoSQL, and Ruby are on my todo list of things to learn.

This highlights the difference between two mindsets. The one mindset is curious about everything they encounter, and finds stuff out. The other waits to be given a training course.

QJo · 2012-09-20 Reply Admin

cg:
jugis / quibus; what a fsckhead!
When is the last time you coded in assembly language? How about even in straight C?

When is the last time you coded source for a language rather than just used a language?

Do you know the difference between a spinlock, a semaphore, and a mutex?

Do you understand the electronics behind an address line change from a 0 to a 1?

When is the last time you coded at ring 0?

When is the last time you coded for an embedded processor like keyboard or wifi?

Do you understand how the speed of light limits the length of transmission lines in very high speed processors?

Do you understand the reason that silicon must be doped for standard bipolar and FET transistors to work?

All of these things and uncountable more are performed regularly so that people like you don't have to know about them.

I have coded in HTML, I have coded scripts that code HTML, but I don't presume that everyone has had the time in their long life to learn and use everything.

You must be really young to be so foolish. That is the reason they don't allow people so young to high office.

Sorry (everyone else) for the rant, but a man's got to know his limits.

What, don't you know these things? Aren't you the remotest bit curious? Admittedly a man needs to know his limits, but yours are embarrassingly low.

Steve The Cynic · 2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Swedish tard:
There is a great deal of both men and women that have no fucking clue how to change tires. Even a fair amount of the ones that believe they do have no idea. I've worked in a tire shop, and I've seen enough fuckwits screw the basics of changing tires...

Personally, when I have a flat on the road somewhere, I change the *wheel* and let the tyre shop take care of changing the *tyre* because they have the tools and know-how to get the old tyre off the rim and the new one on.

And no, changing a wheel by the side of the road isn't hard, but that doesn't mean I want to do it in the pouring rain, a howling gale, or (memorably, once) driving snow.

Steve The Cynic · 2012-09-20 Reply Admin

cg:
jugis / quibus; what a fsckhead!
When is the last time you coded in assembly language? How about even in straight C?

Assembly? some time back, sadly. C? Doing that in my current job.

cg:
When is the last time you coded source for a language rather than just used a language?

Are you saying "The last time I built an interpreter or compiler"? That was back in the mid-90s. It was a noddy microlanguage designed to exercise a signalling stack and related environment.

cg:
Do you know the difference between a spinlock, a semaphore, and a mutex?

A semaphore is a bucket with tokens in it. A consumer takes tokens from the bucket, and a producer puts them in. If there are no tokens in the bucket, the consumer waits. If there are consumers waiting on an empty bucket, one of them will be released for each token put into the bucket by a producer.

A mutex is like a semaphore where the number of tokens in a non-empty bucket is limited to 1. This means only one consumer can have a token, and he is generally also a producer, in that when he is finished, he puts the token back in the bucket.

A spinlock is like a mutex, but instead of sleeping while waiting to be released, the consumer busy-waits. It produces a quicker response, but also makes priority inversion harder to avoid.

cg:
Do you understand the electronics behind an address line change from a 0 to a 1?

At the electronic level, it doesn't change from 0 to 1. It changes from low to high, or in some logic systems from high to low.

cg:
When is the last time you coded at ring 0?

Current job, assuming you're talking about x86. Other architectures may number their rings differently, in particular by having 0 be the lowest-privileged ring, which I think shows I know more about this than you do.

cg:
When is the last time you coded for an embedded processor like keyboard or wifi?

A long while ago, and the most embeddedy of them was a TI Sensor Signal Processor with just 576 bits of memory.

cg:
Do you understand how the speed of light limits the length of transmission lines in very high speed processors?

Fuss, fuss, it's the rate of signal propagation rather than the speed of light as such. And that rate is usually substantially slower than the speed of light in a vacuum, and can be affected in electronic circuits by capacitive and inductive effects (which increase the time before the signal is "ready" at the new level).

cg:
Do you understand the reason that silicon must be doped for standard bipolar and FET transistors to work?

I could blither all day about band gaps, Dirac holes, N- and P-doping, and the like. Most of it would be more or less subtly wrong, I'm sure, because it's been a long time since I learned about it, but it would be in the general neighbourhood of right. And the Redundancy Department of Redundancy wants their abbreviation back. The T in FET stands for transistor.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Ralph:
document.onkeydown = disablekeyboardnavigation;
No.
I don't think so.

I'm afraid you are very, very confused. It is my computer. Not yours. N-O-T Y-O-U-R C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R. Can you hear me yet?

There's a reason humans invented language. Not everything can be expressed by pointing and grunting. And even if it could, language is so much more efficient for those who can be bothered to learn it. And despite what the "usability" crapspewers insist, most everyone can learn language.

You can have my keyboard when you pry it from my cold dead fingers, fuckyouverymuch.

This is why I do not give permission for random asshats to take control of my browser.

You forgot to disable my shotgun while you were at it.

Do the world a favor and die. Please just die already. Yes I really mean it.

The amusing thing about this rant is it belies a lack of comprehension of what a computer program is at its most basic level.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

QJo:
Anketam:
In my case I have only been an official software developer for 4 years. I have done stuff in college with php (which lets not even go there), and post-college for random non work things which did involve the Internet I have used aspx and Grails. But none of my professional work has involved JavaScript (nor Java, hence why I accidently mistook the code snippet for Java and was confused). JavaScript, Java (and several of its frameworks), NoSQL, and Ruby are on my todo list of things to learn.
This highlights the difference between two mindsets. The one mindset is curious about everything they encounter, and finds stuff out. The other waits to be given a training course.

I'd argue the two mindsets are "Thinks web pages are cool and wants to know how to make one" and "Could give a rat's ass about web pages". I like my programming close to the metal. I hate all things GUI. I've looked at just enough JavaScript to know what an abomination it is, but not enough to know off the top of my head that it makes no distinction between ' and " (actually, if pressed, I probably could have told you that).

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

iWantToKeepAnon:

Don't blame the language for the sins of the browser wars and piss poor browser/DOM integration. That's not the language's fault, it's Microsoft's fault. And Netscape's too.

It'd be great if we could get browser vendors to agree on a DOM, event, and parameter passing standard; and to cut all the old spaghetti code and make some rational sense of it all. But that'd break the web and browsers would have to provide backwards compatibility modes and things would only get worse. Better to use a library that abstracts all that away and let's you focus on using JS in all its glory (well it does have some) to write your app.

Or even use a development framework that quietly generates any JS you need and lets you develop in an IDE with content-assist, refactoring tools and a debugger.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

TRWTF is that only using e in the Netscape section is actually correct -- Netscape (& Gecko) browsers will pass the event as a parameter to the function; IE and Webkit browsers will use a global window.event variable.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

Abico:
I've looked at just enough JavaScript to know what an abomination it is, but not enough to know off the top of my head that it makes no distinction between ' and " (actually, if pressed, I probably could have told you that).

Which of course means that you've barely looked at any Python, PHP, Perl, Bash, Lua, PHP... and many more languages, since they all allow strings in single quotes (with some differences to double quotes, in some cases, but still).

Some day you'll get out of the low-level layer and discover a whole new world!

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

JJ:
With the prevalence of the Web over the last 18+ years, if you are a programmer and haven't taken any kind of look into HTML then you are what I consider to be the worst kind of programmer: the uninquisitive kind.
I'm not talking about javascript. I'm not talking about XML. I'm not talking about CSS. I'm talking about plain old HTML. And I don't care if your job involves writing microcode for some embedded chip that won't get within a mile of a Web browser; the fact that you're on this site mean you're exposed to HTML on a regular basis. I just don't get how anyone could not care.

(I do, however, get that there are people who don't care. And I form an opinion of them based on that.)

And yet, your browser use is a small subset of your graphics card microcode use and operating system use. If you're not looking into those, there must be something wrong with you as well.

Browsers are toys built on top of real programming. There's nothing wrong with an automotive engineer who isn't interested in how a wind-up toy car works.

I don't think anyone has said they haven't looked at HTML, but you talk about learning HTML like it's some grand undertaking. The Day I Learned HTML (I would make that <flash> if BBCode had the tag for it. Tell a programmer it's a markup language, give them a 3x5 card with the tags, done. That's why people don't care; they know there's very little to it and could learn it in half a day if they had to. HTML5, yeah, a little more complex, but that's not what you said.

And for the record, I was writing dynamic HTML pages before there were specific technologies for it, using Visual Basic 3 and an Access database. You were probably still in diapers while I was inventing ways to do things that there wasn't an easy way to do yet.

2012-09-20 Reply Admin

incassum:
Abico:
I've looked at just enough JavaScript to know what an abomination it is, but not enough to know off the top of my head that it makes no distinction between ' and " (actually, if pressed, I probably could have told you that).
Which of course means that you've barely looked at any Python, PHP, Perl, Bash, Lua, PHP... and many more languages, since they all allow strings in single quotes (with some differences to double quotes, in some cases, but still).
Some day you'll get out of the low-level layer and discover a whole new world!

Python is my favorite language. I hate the others (haven't looked much at Lua, though I've heard good things).

How do you come to the conclusion that not knowing intuitively one detail of JavaScript means I don't know Python?

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