The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2009-09-10 Reply Admin

This code makes me sad as a software engineer. Hard to believe that people out there are writing shit like this.

2009-09-10 Reply Admin

Because everything is bigger in Texas!

2009-09-10 Reply Admin

Cynthia:
Because everything is bigger in Texas!

Especially the love of repetition, it seems.

2009-09-10 Reply Admin

Buzzard:
AussieMan:
"It was an easy fix... but it certainly didn't solve the bigger problem."
The problem is America has too many states. Australia is easier to maintain.

New Zealand, moreso....

Yup: North Island (NI), South Island (SI), West Island (WI) [Kiwis will understand]

2009-09-10 Reply Admin

eViLegion:
I particularly like the maintainability of this example.

It's look and feel

el_oscuro · 2009-09-10 Reply Admin

Federico:
#!/bin/sh
for char in W T F '!'; do if "$char" == 'W'; then echo 'W' elif "$char" == 'T'; then echo 'T' elif "$char" == 'F'; then echo 'F' elif "$char" == '!'; then echo '!' fi done

CAPTCHA: pecus: pecus bill?

Hey! that is my script! Where did you get it?

2009-09-11 Reply Admin

<select name="usr_province">
  <option petal:repeat="state states"
    petal:content="state/description" 
    petal:attributes="value state/abbreviation;
      selected decode: selected_state state/abbreviation
      'selected' undef" 
  />
</select>

2009-09-12 Reply Admin

ounos:
<option>TN - Tennessee</option> <option >TX - Texas</option> <option>VI - U.S. Virgin Islands</option> <option>UT - Utah</option>
That's the RTWTF. Texas' option got an extra space. WHY?

Just be glad it doesn't have a dollar sign.

2009-09-12 Reply Admin

Could we please have more comments that "Everything is bigger in Texas"? (I think we're pretty much agreed that neither short-term memory nor IQ are included in "everything" for the sake of this discussion.)

2009-09-12 Reply Admin

Steve Syfuhs:
Same in Canada. Code looks similar to another app I've seen... Except we spell our variables with an 'ou' than 'o'.

<optioun> ?

random_garbage · 2009-09-13 Reply Admin

n00b:
I once wrote a php code that generated a long html form (13k lines). Basically it looked something like this:
for (~150x) print name for (~75x) if x=y print option selected else print option

You had a single page form, with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DROP-DOWN BOXES, each containing 75 options? OUCH! I'd be bored and wander away long before reaching the bottom of the form...

What kinds of situation would require such a monstrosity?

2009-09-14 Reply Admin

It is obvious the coder just copied a snippet, didn't understand how it worked, and then just fiddled with it until it kind of did what was expected. This was most likely a government employee.

2009-09-23 Reply Admin

Why would you spoil code as funny as that.

2009-09-24 Reply Admin

[applaudes]

2009-10-01 Reply Admin

just because pay is based on LOC wouldnt mean you have to hand type it.

If I WAS paid by LOC, I might do something like the above, but I would definely cut/paste or even script the writting of the whole thing

2017-03-07 Reply Admin

With less repetition (in PHP):

$states = array("AL" => "Alabama", "AK" => "Alaska"); // etc. echo "<select name='usr_state'>\n"; foreach ($states as $abbrev => $full) { echo "<option value='$abbrev'" . ($abbrev === $state ? " selected" : "") . ">$abbrev - $full</option>\n"; } echo "</select>\n";

2021-11-05