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Admin
A first-person shooter, and you are using a club? Where is your Uzi? You would not want the embarrassment of not having a distance weapon at the appropriate time, now would you?
See how important it is to check the design before proceeding? It can also save money. (If you are far enough away (because you are using a distance weapon), you need not worry to protect your clothes from blood spatters.)
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Admin
This doesn't suprise me. When I received my BS/CS back in the mid 80's, my advisor was from India. He told me that was a common practice back then in India. There were so few computers that most students rarely used an 'actual' computer. They 'ran' their code on paper by having others reviewing the code.
He tried to tell me that made for BETTER developers because by the time they got in front of a 'real' computer, everything already ran fine.
Come to think of it, my advisior was a real a**hole.
DaleWill
Admin
<FONT face=Tahoma>maybe they decided that placing the source code in the wooden table, taking a digital picture, etc... would take too much time for their compiler in another location to actually compile it so they just gamble with "the source looks good enough to me"...
tsk tsk...time management...
</FONT>
Admin
I'm thinking the FPS of choice would be called "Grand Theft ICBM".
Admin
Deskchecking is a good practice, because to check your program this way, you have to know what the computer will do. There is no running it through the debugger and hoping for magic. It is not a replacement for on-line checking though, but it can result in much fewer bugs, because, done right, it helps weed out lick-and-a-promise coding.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Admin
My dad was a real old school programmer - having gotten started in the 1950s. He always insisted that it's better to desk check (paper test, whatever) your code before typing it in. It's not a ridiculous thing to suggest in a situation where computing resources are scarce.
What's crazy is outsourcing to a company/country that can't afford computers in this day and age.
Admin
When I was a CS major in the mid-80s (I actually have a split college career, one summer break lasting 13 years), we were encouraged to desk check as much as possible. Probably because compiling and producing the program's output made about 20 pages of 132-column green-bar paper: 19 pages of source, traces, and debugging information, and 1 page showing your "magic square" or whatever. Since I was paying exorbiant fees for activities that I didn't partake in (the school was a basketball arena that they decided needed a small university attched to it), I printed as many reams as I wanted, or until the guy behind the desk shut me down.
Admin
Once, as a teenager when I was stuck at camp for a couple weeks (a real camp, not even electricity), I wrote a message board program in a notebook, rewriting each module as needed, tearing out and burning (in the campfire) obsolete code, debugging it by tracing through it mentally; when I got home I transcribed it, and it worked flawlessly (single user dial-up, so no thread deadlock type things were possible)...
I hated camping.
Admin
Now THAT'S what I call a WTF!
And what's up with the "Quote" button only working when logged in?
Admin
That sounds familiar. I used to do that all the time back in the day when laptops weren't very affordable to the average person.
Last year, I worked briefly (very briefly, but that's another story) for a company where they required me to code in BBEdit. It wasn't until after a few weeks I noticed line numbers were off by default in it. Not a single typo or error thus far.
Still, I wouldn't try to sell my notebook-code (that's notebook as in paper, not laptop) without testing it first. It's just hilarious.
Admin
Dude: Paula Bean T-Shirts. Instant recognition wherever you go. Alex, please make and sell them.
Admin
A cricket bat would be both more available and more effective.
Admin
i'm looking forward to that too... :)
Admin
Which year was this in? I left India in 1999 and have lived in the US since. I used to have a 486 based PC at home with a dot matrix printer. We had to submit a final semester project and I made good money allowing my classmates to use the Printer to print their project reports out as the school had restricted lab time and the CS students use to monopolize the lab :-))
Admin
1. I an so happy that a participator is taking part in the conversation. You get 10,000 attaboys for sticking around while the universe of WTF readers gives you serious stick for being one of the perpetrators.
2. As you know 10,000 attaboys do not even begin to mitigate. I've been where I felt like I was going to a hanging, but at least I knew that it was coming.
As usual, the real WTF was actually perpetrated back when the project was being managed so competently. Your company should have required the project manager, as his last activity as an employee, to be the guy in front of the room at the demonstration.
Admin
The money may have been rerouted to a Swiss account...according to my research.
Admin
I sincerely hope your company sued the company/people in India for breach of contract, and at least recovered every cent paid thus far for their "work" because if that "code" was a car, that'd be subject to Lemon Laws! I'd also hope that all future projects would never involve that company in India, because they've clearly demonstrated that they can't be trusted to provide anything of value.
Admin
That's the second time someone suggested a cricket bat. They don't sell those here (unless you look hard)! Cricket is basically non-existant in the US. Also, I REALLY doubt a cricket bat could hold up to this:
http://www.aluminumbats.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1664
I still carry an old-school aluminum TPX Slugger in my backseat.... just in case ;-)
Admin
I'm an old school programmer myself (although not THAT old school) and used to write portions of programs by hand "back in the day" to help figure out the logic, etc. Since development tools (not to mention compilers) have gotten better and better, however, it's been decades since I've had to do anything like that.
Admin
I'll take one, size XL. The front could say "Paula Bean" and the back would say "Brillant!"
Admin
Oh boy, that one just takes the cake.
Bring it back, I want a slice!
giggles
Admin
These guys didn't follow the golden rule... If it compiles, it must work! (TM)
Admin
Special sale price, too:
Reg price 149.97
109.95 (crossed out)
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Admin
It's actually 189.95
Sincerely,
Me.
Admin
If you code in the dark usually the glow from the screen helps quite a bit.
Admin
ROFLMAO! I can't believe I didn't notice that! I can't figure out the words to describe how WTF'd up me linking that on this is. ROFLMAO...
Gotta love those -36.4% sales!
Admin
They might have well just faxed the code to the other end, and have it 'run' on paper there. Would save all that time typing it into a computer...
Admin
As was pointed out upthread, it is actually 189.95 crossed out, but it looks as if it is 109.95 as the "0" and "8" are the same except for the line where a strikeout goes. Characters that are too similar can be a WTF. Another of these can be seen in proofreading text in Times New Roman: "bam" and "barn" look very similar.
The explosives went off with a bam, and the barn collapsed.
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Admin
Reminds me the years I spent at one of the universities in central Europe. All of the programming exams must be done on paper. And it was only four-five years ago. I hope the situation has been changed since then...
Admin
Here in the US, truth is an absolute defense against libel claims.
Admin
Admin
There's actually a worse engineering philosophy than 'if it compiles, ship it'?
Must drill hole in head to let madness out.
Admin
my company beleives in out sourcing too :(
one time they sent me a code that can never run so I called their(out source comapy) team leader and told him the code u've sent can never run, he told it's very strange it's working here, I was like to the line number x and read it for me, when he did that I said again this code can never run it's like hardcoded division by zero, he answred but it's strange it's working here, did u change anything in your environment?
I wish I had a gun that works over seas at that time.
Admin
I'm studying at University of Cambridge, and we still take all exams, including programming, on paper. Minor typos and omissions are not counted as mistakes, and in some cases, you can even replace the code with an algorithm description.
The only annoyance is not being able to fit more than a few lines between existing ones, but otherwise it is a good idea. Before you write something, you have to understand what you are doing and exactly how the program should work. Having access to a compiler makes it tempting to write something that looks like as it might work without thinking, but the write - fix until compiles - test - fix cycle usually ends in a mess that even no amount of unit testing will help.
If the algorithm in question is not something you write every few weeks, then it is a good idea to write/sketch the algorithm on paper in pseudocode in real life as well.
Admin
The suggestion is keyed to the remark, not where you happen to be writing from.
1. The company in question was in India (read the early responses). I doubt, even today, one would easilly find a baseball bat in Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai, except at the US Embassy compound.
2. Comparing the damage a baseball bat would do versus a cricket bat is something like delivering code that has never been run - seriously, have you hefted a cricket bat? The shape alone makes it a formidable weapon. Think Claymore versus Foil...
Admin
Only if you can afford to pay your lawyer...
Admin
We really, really, really need some kind of formal worldwide control over who is allowed to work in this industry.........
Admin
It's quite popular in India tho.
I hope it hasn't. At my university (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland) we do all exams on paper. This would seem to me to be a good thing; access to a compiler would only help the clueless. Language is generally also optional; one lecturer in particular likes to do his examples in something vaguely Algol-like; he makes the syntax up as he goes along.
As it is in most countries, in fact. The difficulty is generally in establishing the truth.
Admin
You could do a golf shirt, have TDWTF logo on the front (left breast, small) and
<font>public class</font> paulaBean {
<font>private String</font> paula = <font>"Brillant"</font>;
<font>public String</font> getPaula() {
<font>return</font> paula;
}
}
on the back :P
Admin
Call the joint "Little Sumerian's", and explain how ancient people didn't usually have propane grills to cook the meat, so that's why you serve them raw. (They didn't have ground beef, either, but don't remind them about that part.)
Besides, lots of people prefer raw beef, as it's juicier and tastes better!
Admin
They changed it again about a week later.
Admin
Sounds like having him plead his case to the firing squad. "But Your Honour, I thought they had tested it thoroughly!"
Admin
I'm european, and we also make all exams in paper in University of Lleida (Spain, Catalonia). Of course, you are also required to do laboratory classes and produce a working program that fulfills certain requirements. If you fail to produce the program, or the program is not good enough, you fail the whole subject.
However, even if you are required to scrawl lots of code in the exam, actually getting a running program is considered important enough that they'll give you important incentives.
If you fail the exam but you make correctly the program, the mark for the program can be preserved for one year, so you'll only need to repeat the exam if you try the same subject the following year*. That applies for all subjects requiring laboratory classes, including some physics and maths (ever used Mathematica?).
Until just a few years ago, the program requirements were given only on photocopies. Maybe a subtle reminder that real programming needs as many lines of detailed printed specifications as lines of actual code?
* Teachers can be persuaded to preserve your exam mark, in case you fail the program part, but this one is not an official politic :P
Now focus your mind and imagine a "Computers II" paper exam, where you are required to program in x386 assembler.....
Admin
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
Donald Knuth
Admin
Aaahahaha!
Admin
You have no idea. It is a training, so when they power supply is gone, they can still work on paper!
That's the way M$ Windows is done, they know and they try to be as famous than M$.
P.D.: Please, excuse my english if something is wrong, because I am not an english natural speaker.
Admin
Read the log of an IRC conversation between John Cowan and a friend (here identified only as “victim”) on the horrors of Cobol. As John says, “it’s interesting to watch ‘victim’ disintegrate as the eldritch nature of the language is sloooowly borne in upon him.”
Admin
Here's one try: http://www.cafepress.com/paulabean
Not using TDWTF logo though..
Admin
After reading several threads here I had thought you guys would like to join the people that live in a bliss of not having COBOL nor Oracle...but yet I've read completely oposite statement from you.
[This just reminds me old good Polish joke, when the profesor examines a student of politology who apparently knows completely nothing about current situation in the country, nor in politics stage...not even knowing what the name of the president was. So after having no answer to several such questions, profesor was ready to ask: and where do you come from? ... and started dreaming to leave work, move to that city in the middle of nowhere and froget about all this crap]
Admin
WTF? There's a name for the study of Poland?