• (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    Jellineck:
    I think the problem is that he is trying to build on the shoulders of giants when he should be standing on the shoulders of giants and working from there.

    This isn't a joking matter. My son, who has gigantism, was seriously injured when some fat (but short) programmer stood on his shoulders and tried to do some work. His chiropractor bills were horrendous. Please be more sensitive.

    Fuck off Bob...

  • Foundations track (unregistered) in reply to Walker E. Richardson

    Maybe his judgment was impaired because he was still recovering from a case of the MUMPS.

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to Jellineck
    Jellineck:
    I think the problem is that he is trying to build on the shoulders of giants when he should be standing on the shoulders of giants and working from there.
    s/working from there/thrown from there into a deep pit filled with sharp spikes and scorpions/

    Apply your own patch to FTFY.

    --Joe

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to Joe
    Joe:
    Jellineck:
    I think the problem is that he is trying to build on the shoulders of giants when he should be standing on the shoulders of giants and working from there.
    s/working from there/thrown from there into a deep pit filled with sharp spikes and scorpions/

    Apply your own patch to FTFY.

    --Joe

    This is no laughing matter... my gigantic idiot son was hurt even more badly when -

    ....

    oh, never mind.

  • el_timm (unregistered)

    Has no one here seen Wile E. Coyote? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STeVTzWelns

    +1 for those comments now becoming part of my every day coding.

  • Brad Glasnost (unregistered) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    This isn't a joking matter. My son, who has gigantism, was seriously injured when some fat (but short) programmer stood on his shoulders and tried to do some work. His chiropractor bills were horrendous. Please be more sensitive.

    Dear Bob,

    In case you can’t tell, this is a grown-up place. The fact that you insist on rehashing some lame joke from a previous article clearly shows that you’re too young and too stupid to be using TheDailyWTF.

    Go away and grow up.

    Sincerely, Brad Glasnost

  • (cs)

    "quite the legacy...it's been around since 1997 "

    That is NOT legacy...Try a code base that can trace itself back to the late 1960's (yes, over 40 years from the original COBOL on Punched Cards, and in many places the COBOL statements are still around as comments

  • Dr.Evil (unregistered) in reply to TheCPUWizard

    Well WE have code that dates back to when computers were just theoretical, the comments are pictures of papyrus taken on a wooden table.

  • (cs) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    "quite the legacy...it's been around since 1997 "

    That is NOT legacy...Try a code base that can trace itself back to the late 1960's (yes, over 40 years from the original COBOL on Punched Cards, and in many places the COBOL statements are still around as comments

    I would LOVE to see how they fit the punched cards into the code base. I bet merge conflicts in <insert version control here> are fun!

  • trtrwtf (unregistered) in reply to Dr.Evil
    Dr.Evil:
    Well WE have code that dates back to when computers were just theoretical, the comments are pictures of papyrus taken on a wooden table.

    Cave paintings or it didn't happen...

  • EatenByAGrue (unregistered)

    Ladies and gentlemen, please observe with an appropriately critical eye the work of Paula Bean's mentor.

  • Jimmy (unregistered)

    Brillant!

    I guess he used to pad things out with whatever letter he was up to, and then he discovered the 'TAB' key

  • Willie (unregistered) in reply to jonny_q
    jonny_q:
    example 1. Ugh. example 2. It has an easily fixable typo. Not a huge WTF. I've used y = (x<10)?"0"+x:x before in JS because, first, there is no pad function, and second, it's usually for formatting a month number which will only be 1-12 anyway. So, meh. example 3. It's debug code, so no big deal. He was passing in a window or iframe designated for debugging and writing junk to it... Of course, I don't see the code that actually writes anything to the document, but whatever... it's debug code example 4. So, he didn't know that other people's tabs may not be the same width as his. Fairly common rookie mistake, but easily fixable in many code editors.

    As for the IFRAME/cookie/JS thing... well, that's how we did asynchronous http requests before we had XMLHttpRequest. Either that's code that was written before XMLHttpRequest was commonplace or it's a guy that REALLY wants to ensure compatibility with REALLY old browsers. Not really necessarily anymore, but not the biggest WTF either.

    example 4: Not just a rookie mistake. I have worked with MANY (claimed experienced) developers who didn't realise most IDE's can happily change TABs to some fixed nnumber of spaces....

  • (cs) in reply to Willie
    Willie:
    jonny_q:
    example 1. Ugh. example 2. It has an easily fixable typo. Not a huge WTF. I've used y = (x<10)?"0"+x:x before in JS because, first, there is no pad function, and second, it's usually for formatting a month number which will only be 1-12 anyway. So, meh. example 3. It's debug code, so no big deal. He was passing in a window or iframe designated for debugging and writing junk to it... Of course, I don't see the code that actually writes anything to the document, but whatever... it's debug code example 4. So, he didn't know that other people's tabs may not be the same width as his. Fairly common rookie mistake, but easily fixable in many code editors.

    As for the IFRAME/cookie/JS thing... well, that's how we did asynchronous http requests before we had XMLHttpRequest. Either that's code that was written before XMLHttpRequest was commonplace or it's a guy that REALLY wants to ensure compatibility with REALLY old browsers. Not really necessarily anymore, but not the biggest WTF either.

    example 4: Not just a rookie mistake. I have worked with MANY (claimed experienced) developers who didn't realise most IDE's can happily change TABs to some fixed nnumber of spaces....

    Argh - there's nothing worse. Leave tabs as tabs, for fuck's sake. Then you can configure your IDE to (visually) tab as many spaces as you like (I'm a 4-char man myself). But getting the IDE to physically replace the tabs with some arbitrary number of damn spaces fucks it up for everyone. Doing a diff is a bloody nightmare and utterly futile (and don't give me that fucking bollocks about diffs that "ignore white space", they're bloody useless.

  • Nagesh (unregistered) in reply to PRMan
    PRMan:
    So, to prove he's "right", this guy spends all day reformatting a piece of code and checks it in and then comes over and proudly announces his victory. I ignored him, but the next time I needed to edit it, I simply hit Ctrl-K, Ctrl-D to format it, added my 1 line and checked it back in.

    I walk by his desk the next day and he is feverishly reformatting the same piece of code. He says, "I will beat you at this. I'm more determined. You can't win. There, I fixed it again and I will keep fixing it until you give up."

    Unless you're using a source control system that tracks code origins across whitespace changes, that should be a firing offense. Well, perhaps with one warning given, but after that, goodbye.

    Seriously. I hate lines that contain only an opening brace as much as anyone (they waste screen real estate and make the code harder to read for absolutely no reason), but you just don't clutter the diffs like that. Except, perhaps, if you're taking ownership of a module and it's formatted hopelessly inconsistently anyway.

  • notme (unregistered) in reply to PRMan
    PRMan:
    I once worked at a place where a new guy started trying to demand that everyone else follow his "professional" style, which included things such as spaces before commas, extra spaces at the parens, curly brace on the same line, etc. We already had a defacto style that pretty much matched the .NET framework style, but didn't have anything written. I told him we wouldn't be doing that and that developers could style the code however they wanted.

    So, to prove he's "right", this guy spends all day reformatting a piece of code and checks it in and then comes over and proudly announces his victory. I ignored him, but the next time I needed to edit it, I simply hit Ctrl-K, Ctrl-D to format it, added my 1 line and checked it back in.

    I walk by his desk the next day and he is feverishly reformatting the same piece of code. He says, "I will beat you at this. I'm more determined. You can't win. There, I fixed it again and I will keep fixing it until you give up."

    I went back to my desk, checked it out, hit Ctrl-K, Ctrl-D, and checked it in, one minute after he checked it in. He comes by later and accuses me of losing his changes because I'm keeping a copy around to check back in over his. Finally, now that he's ready to listen, I show him that he can set his settings however he likes in Visual Studio and work in whatever way suits him. All of us can do the same..

    I would have given the guy some piece of my mind for spamming up the revision history like that with useless cosmetic commits. They probably change every single line in the file without actually changing, much less improving, anything of actual substance. Try making meaningful diffs over larger spans of the revision history after a checkin like that.

    Nevermind that, unless he's the project leader or has explicitly been given ownership of that particular piece of code, the formatting is just plain none of his business.

    Also, accusing you of keeping a copy of the original file? Does that man even know what source repositories with revision control are for?

  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    This isn't a joking matter. My son, who has gigantism, was seriously injured when some fat (but short) programmer stood on his shoulders and tried to do some work. His chiropractor bills were horrendous. Please be more sensitive.
    His name wouldn't happen to be Mario, by any chance?
  • (cs) in reply to Nagesh
    Nagesh:
    Unless you're using a source control system that tracks code origins across whitespace changes, that should be a firing offense. Well, perhaps with one warning given, but after that, goodbye.

    Yes, and No. I have set up a number of clients where as the code is being checked in, it is automatically formatted (with a much deeper formatter than typical in the IDE) so that no matter how the developer mungs the whitespace (and line breaks, and blank lines, and...) the code that is in the repository confirms to the company standards (or is rejected)

  • me (unregistered) in reply to java.lang.Chris;

    i was like, am I the only one that caught that?

  • SomeDude, but not that other SumeDude (unregistered) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    Willie:
    jonny_q:
    example 1. Ugh. example 2. It has an easily fixable typo. Not a huge WTF. I've used y = (x<10)?"0"+x:x before in JS because, first, there is no pad function, and second, it's usually for formatting a month number which will only be 1-12 anyway. So, meh. example 3. It's debug code, so no big deal. He was passing in a window or iframe designated for debugging and writing junk to it... Of course, I don't see the code that actually writes anything to the document, but whatever... it's debug code example 4. So, he didn't know that other people's tabs may not be the same width as his. Fairly common rookie mistake, but easily fixable in many code editors.

    As for the IFRAME/cookie/JS thing... well, that's how we did asynchronous http requests before we had XMLHttpRequest. Either that's code that was written before XMLHttpRequest was commonplace or it's a guy that REALLY wants to ensure compatibility with REALLY old browsers. Not really necessarily anymore, but not the biggest WTF either.

    example 4: Not just a rookie mistake. I have worked with MANY (claimed experienced) developers who didn't realise most IDE's can happily change TABs to some fixed nnumber of spaces....

    Argh - there's nothing worse. Leave tabs as tabs, for fuck's sake. Then you can configure your IDE to (visually) tab as many spaces as you like (I'm a 4-char man myself). But getting the IDE to physically replace the tabs with some arbitrary number of damn spaces fucks it up for everyone. Doing a diff is a bloody nightmare and utterly futile (and don't give me that fucking bollocks about diffs that "ignore white space", they're bloody useless.

    I'm not sure whetehr your being serious or not... The problem with TAB, is that some ofther Dev's might use spaces to mimic your tabs, and that's when the real issue happens

  • (cs)

    The disadvantage of being a Super Genius (as opposed to just a regular Genius like me) is that any exposure to a fragment of your original code causes you to weaken and die.

  • (cs) in reply to Nagesh

    Has "Nagesh" become the new "Anon"? I, for one, welcome our new Ganeshian overlords.

  • Wait a ruddy minut.... (unregistered) in reply to Leak
    Leak:
    Bob:
    This isn't a joking matter. My son, who has gigantism, was seriously injured when some fat (but short) programmer stood on his shoulders and tried to do some work. His chiropractor bills were horrendous. Please be more sensitive.
    His name wouldn't happen to be Mario, by any chance?
    Are you saying: Super Genius = Super Mario ?
  • Herby (unregistered)

    I'm surprised that nobody in the first set of comments said:

    Frrrrriiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttttt

    As for white space, an editor I used would properly make tabs if there was white space before a "tab stop". The problem is that people have different ideas of where the tab stops should be. Some bozos (probably "super geniuses") seem to feel that tabs are every 4 spaces. They should get a life.

    I await the comments for tomorrow for a comment as described above.

  • Bronie (unregistered) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    Argh - there's nothing worse. Leave tabs as tabs, for fuck's sake. Then you can configure your IDE to (visually) tab as many spaces as you like (I'm a 4-char man myself). But getting the IDE to physically replace the tabs with some arbitrary number of damn spaces fucks it up for everyone. Doing a diff is a bloody nightmare and utterly futile

    What archaic stuff do you use there for diff?

    Even open-source WinMerge can ignore whitespaces.

  • cjk (unregistered)

    TRWTF is

    The application I've relevantly been assigned to

    What does that even mean!?

  • (cs) in reply to SomeDude, but not that other SumeDude
    SomeDude:
    Matt Westwood:
    Willie:
    jonny_q:
    example 1. Ugh. example 2. It has an easily fixable typo. Not a huge WTF. I've used y = (x<10)?"0"+x:x before in JS because, first, there is no pad function, and second, it's usually for formatting a month number which will only be 1-12 anyway. So, meh. example 3. It's debug code, so no big deal. He was passing in a window or iframe designated for debugging and writing junk to it... Of course, I don't see the code that actually writes anything to the document, but whatever... it's debug code example 4. So, he didn't know that other people's tabs may not be the same width as his. Fairly common rookie mistake, but easily fixable in many code editors.

    As for the IFRAME/cookie/JS thing... well, that's how we did asynchronous http requests before we had XMLHttpRequest. Either that's code that was written before XMLHttpRequest was commonplace or it's a guy that REALLY wants to ensure compatibility with REALLY old browsers. Not really necessarily anymore, but not the biggest WTF either.

    example 4: Not just a rookie mistake. I have worked with MANY (claimed experienced) developers who didn't realise most IDE's can happily change TABs to some fixed nnumber of spaces....

    Argh - there's nothing worse. Leave tabs as tabs, for fuck's sake. Then you can configure your IDE to (visually) tab as many spaces as you like (I'm a 4-char man myself). But getting the IDE to physically replace the tabs with some arbitrary number of damn spaces fucks it up for everyone. Doing a diff is a bloody nightmare and utterly futile (and don't give me that fucking bollocks about diffs that "ignore white space", they're bloody useless.

    I'm not sure whetehr your being serious or not... The problem with TAB, is that some ofther Dev's might use spaces to mimic your tabs, and that's when the real issue happens

    Yes, there are text editors which have an option to (a) allow the user to define the number of spaces a tab takes up, and (b) to allow the option to get the editor to replace all tabs by the requisite number of spaces before saving. White space diff or not white space diff, it causes irritation at the very least.

    Developers using spaces to mimic tabs are shoddy developers, as far as I'm concerned. I've seen them, hitting the space key: plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk plonk, whoops too many: where's the backspace key: plonk plonk plonk ... Most tedious to mentor such people, particularly if they have a tendency to raise their voice in annoyance when you gently attempt to point out techniques for increasing their throughput.

    I wonder whether such people need to utilise such long-winded techniques of entering "non-functional code" into their source files so as to provide their fingers something to do while awaiting their brains to grind into motion.

  • (cs) in reply to PedanticCurmudgeon
    PedanticCurmudgeon:
    For immortal obfuscation, you need a postmodern language like Befunge or Whitespace.
    Try Bloated SNUSP. It's simultaneously amazing and horrific, and you might even be able to persuade it to do something useful. (I've even written an interpreter for it; I don't feel like writing a compiler though, I value my brain cells.) But introducing tabs into a program for any variant of SNUSP… Brrr!
  • (cs) in reply to Shinobu
    Shinobu:
    I agree. I think the main problem here was that he didn't really take his job very seriously. The ‘It's just silly web stuff.’ attitude. I've seen very good coders churn out ultra-crappy code because they didn't take it seriously. The reasons varied. Sometimes it was too simple and they didn't feel challenged enough, sometimes they didn't feel the work was important enough.
    "Here I am, Walker E. Richardson, an experienced and skilled programmer, and they've got me doing dinky JavaScript routines. It's not even real programming - it's just scripting. It says JavaScript! Well, it's a good thing they have a Suuuuuuuuuupppperrrrr Geeeeeeeeennniuuuuusssss like me around or they'd have no chance."
  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    This isn't a joking matter. My son, who has gigantism, was seriously injured when some fat (but short) programmer stood on his shoulders and tried to do some work. His chiropractor bills were horrendous. Please be more sensitive.
    Bob:
    This is no laughing matter... my gigantic idiot son was hurt even more badly when -

    ....

    oh, never mind.

    So you now have severe blackouts, eh?

    Too much whiskey? Or is this a severe case of zunesis?

    Maybe you should try that new russian drug crocodile that everyone now is raving about.

    Stop posting that bullshit, i already told you that i am not related.

    I say it again: Do not involve me in your business! I am not you son and you are not my uncle!

  • Commie (unregistered) in reply to no laughing matter
    no laughing matter:
    Maybe you should try that new russian drug crocodile

    Sorry but it ain't new. I'm using it since 2000

  • L. (unregistered)

    Blabla blabla whitespaces ... WTF ? Why would anyone NOT use tabs when indenting code ??? Using whitespaces is just as smart as changing the language syntax to use ([ instead of { ...

  • Nagesh (unregistered) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    Nagesh:
    Unless you're using a source control system that tracks code origins across whitespace changes, that should be a firing offense. Well, perhaps with one warning given, but after that, goodbye.
    Yes, and No. I have set up a number of clients where as the code is being checked in, it is automatically formatted (with a much deeper formatter than typical in the IDE) so that no matter how the developer mungs the whitespace (and line breaks, and blank lines, and...) the code that is in the repository confirms to the company standards (or is rejected)
    Sure, sure ... but the VCS that PRMan's group was using at the time of that anecdote was apparently not set up that way (otherwise the wayward coworker would have been thwarted automatically from the outset).
  • Nagesh (unregistered) in reply to L.
    L.:
    Blabla blabla whitespaces ... WTF ? Why would anyone NOT use tabs when indenting code ??? Using whitespaces is just as smart as changing the language syntax to use ([ instead of { ...
    (1) Tabs are whitespace.

    (2) No, that is not syntax. Syntax is something the compiler (and language definition in general) cares about. Most languages (though exceptions exist) don't care about the variety or amount of whitespace you use. That makes it considerably less smart to attempt to change the compiler-relevant syntax than it is to do even foolish weird things with whitespace.

  • Capt. Obvious (unregistered) in reply to Nagesh
    Fake Nagesh:
    Seriously. I hate lines that contain only an opening brace as much as anyone (they waste screen real estate and make the code harder to read for absolutely no reason)

    Seriously? That is far easier to read than the "Let's cram 400x commands on the same line" style.

    for(int i = 0; i < someNumber.Count; i++)
{
   Console.WriteLine("See how much easier it is to see the flow here?");
}

    vs

    for(int i = 0; i < someNumber.Count; i++) { Console.WriteLine("See how much easier it is to see the flow here?"); }

    or having braces that are on different lines and appear "mismatched"

    for(int i = 0; i < someNumber.Count; i++) {
   Console.WriteLine("See how much easier it is to see the flow here?");
} //Why does this go on its own line but not the opening brace?
  • (cs) in reply to Capt. Obvious
    Capt. Obvious:
    Fake Nagesh:
    Seriously. I hate lines that contain only an opening brace as much as anyone (they waste screen real estate and make the code harder to read for absolutely no reason)

    Seriously? That is far easier to read than the "Let's cram 400x commands on the same line" style.

    for(int i = 0; i < someNumber.Count; i++)
{
   Console.WriteLine("See how much easier it is to see the flow here?");
}

    vs

    for(int i = 0; i < someNumber.Count; i++) { Console.WriteLine("See how much easier it is to see the flow here?"); }

    or having braces that are on different lines and appear "mismatched"

    for(int i = 0; i < someNumber.Count; i++) {
   Console.WriteLine("See how much easier it is to see the flow here?");
} //Why does this go on its own line but not the opening brace?

    Matter of taste. The 3rd option is far more aesthetically pleasing to me than either of the other two - although the second is worse, of course.

    Not having the braces physically line up is unnecessary. All that matters is for the closing brace to match up against the opening word (in this case "for") of the structure block it closes. If that's too far up the page and there are so many blocks and the structure goes so deep within those blocks that this is not straightforward, then you have a refactoring job on your hands.

  • (cs)

    Sum time for job securenes, you shuld write code and remove all spaces just before comit. if the configuraton manager is aslep on job, you can get code in.

  • Zuy Incognito (unregistered) in reply to no laughing matter
    no laughing matter:
    Bob:
    This is no laughing matter... my gigantic idiot son was hurt even more badly when - .... oh, never mind.
    So you now have severe blackouts, eh? Too much whiskey? Or is this a severe case of zunesis?
    All cases of Zunesis are severe.

    If you suspect someone is beginning to suffer from Zunesis, arm yourself and call 911 immediately. For your own rectum's sake!

    Think of the children! I know I do ;>

  • (cs) in reply to Zuy Incognito
    Zuy Incognito:
    no laughing matter:
    Or is this a severe case of zunesis?
    All cases of Zunesis are severe.
    YHBT. YHL.
    Zuy Incognito:
    If you suspect someone is beginning to suffer from Zunesis, arm yourself ...
    Is that the act otherwise known as goatse?
    Zuy Incognito:
    and call 911 immediately. For your own rectum's sake!
    I can assure you: Contact with my rectum will be no laughing matter!
    Zuy Incognito:
    Think of the children! I know I do ;>
    HAND.
  • Zuy Incognito (unregistered) in reply to no laughing matter
    no laughing matter:
    Zuy Incognito:
    no laughing matter:
    Or is this a severe case of zunesis?
    All cases of Zunesis are severe.
    YHBT. YHL. HAND.
    Zuy Incognito:
    If you suspect someone is beginning to suffer from Zunesis, arm yourself ...
    Is that the act otherwise known as goatse?
    Zuy Incognito:
    and call 911 immediately. For your own rectum's sake!
    I can assure you: Contact with my rectum will be no laughing matter!
    1. What is this I don't even? 2. Goatse does not feature the forearm or even the entire hand inside a man's rectum, only his fingers if my poster of it here in my cube is accurate. The only time I've seen an entire arm up a man's rectum is when is was detached from him first, but good catch anyway. 3. Usually I can't stop laughing/crying/calling myself names in the mirror while invading ass, but is something different here? Do you keep a RapeEx installed?
  • (cs) in reply to Zuy Incognito
    Zuy Incognito:
    1. What is this I don't even?
    The saying goes that google is your friend, but it does not apply in your case: Googling zunesis brings up 20.500 results, but scanning the first 10 pages shows that it actually SFW. -> FAIL!
    Zuy Incognito:
    2. Goatse does not feature the forearm or even the entire hand inside a man's rectum, only his fingers if my poster of it here in my cube is accurate.
    What if the poster shows only the beginning of the procedure?
    Zuy Incognito:
    The only time I've seen an entire arm up a man's rectum
    As stated before: Your abilities of successfully use search engines leave room for improvement!
    Zuy Incognito:
    3. Usually I can't stop laughing/crying/calling myself names in the mirror while invading ass, but is something different here? Do you keep a RapeEx installed?
    Nice idea!

    But actually i was referring to my preference of barbecue sauces which measure in several million Scoville, so your crying will be ensured!

  • Bronie (unregistered)

    It's because he spelt it wrong - should try Zedunesis

    And if he refers to not knowing "YHBT" - that's "You Have Been Trollt"

  • JJ (unregistered) in reply to cjk
    cjk:
    TRWTF is
    The application I've relevantly been assigned to

    What does that even mean!?

    THANK YOU! I was stunned that I had to get to the second page before someone pointed out that we had a WTF by the fourth word in the article.

  • (cs)

    The DebugObject function should be called getUndefinedIfDebugObjAndWinOutHasDocumentOrGetFalseAlertingTheUserIfWinOutHasNoDocument. See, NOW it makes sense, doesn't it? You're welcome.

  • THE Zuy-Guy (You Know You Love Me) (unregistered) in reply to no laughing matter
    no laughing matter:
    But actually i was referring to my preference of barbecue sauces which measure in several million Scoville, so your crying will be ensured!
    It would burn my foot that bad?

    I'll hook you up to the machine just to be safe.

    Or, better yet? Do you have a dog? One with a long, thin snout? Cause he could always act as a proxy...

    I rather enjoy the idea of doing something inhumane and awful to a party related to the target, as then they will have to feel the additional guilt of getting that innocent party hurt (e.g. their dog/wife/child/mother/postman).

  • THE Zuy-Guy (You Know You Love Me) (unregistered) in reply to THE Zuy-Guy (You Know You Love Me)

    ...though it would rob some of the intimacy, which is the part often most savory...

    ...that feeling of satisfaction.

  • Eduardo Costa (unregistered) in reply to QJo

    When I read about that "Suuuuuuuuuupppperrrrr Geeeeeeeeennniuuuuusssss" and the Slow-Motion-Guy, I understand why Scott Adams produced so many strips...

    I also worked with a "super-genius-like" code: every time the programmer edited a line, he put his name in a comment after the darn line. I found code blocks, methods, classes and even classes' comments with this! Yes! He put a comment on a comment!

  • Frist (unregistered)

    Hm, can I comment on an article that isn't published yet?

  • 🤷 (unregistered)

    I know Walker E. Richardson only through his code, but still, I feel that I know him quite well.

    I like this sentence. A lot. I had the honor to inherit code from a programmer I never met in person, but yet I feel I know him very well. Using GUI elements as some kind of temporary storage (because variables might "forget" the values you assigned to them?), every variable is of type string, global, and conveniently named "a, b, c, d, e, e1, f, f2, g, gg" and so on, if's with empty else blocks. Empty if blocks, with code in the else block. Empty catches. No try-catch where it would make sense. Constantly "off by one" errors in his loops. Nested if-elses (I once encountered a nested level of 32), where a simple switch would have been much more readable. GUI programs that ran unobserved on a server (via Windows Scheduler) and closed themselves after 5 minutes "if the user isn't there to close the program"). All business logic conveniently placed in the Form_Load event.

    I rewrote/refactored many of his programs I had to use on a regular basis. So I really hope I made the jobs of the people who follow after me a bit easier...

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