• (cs)

    I can't believe m22 wasn't c40 to the l16.  I mean, g10, for heaven's sakes!

  • (unregistered)

    [:S]  If I was handed this, I would have excused myself to the bathroom and puked my brains out, and then ran for the high hills not looking back!

  • (cs)

    What horrible naming conventions!  Everyone knows that "m12" should be named "tbl_m12" to make it more readable!

  • (cs)

    Nikolay Simeonov, you the man!

  • (cs)

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">WTF did Nikolay do in a past life to get stuck with code like this, not once, but twice!?![:|]</FONT>

  • (cs)

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">And remember, that original programmer is on the loose, interviewing with unsuspecting potential employers who are totally unaware of the trail of destruction left in his/her wake.</FONT>

  • (cs)

    "dbo.m15.val AS Tem"

    I assume this is the temperature. 
    Couldn't spare that extra 'p'

  • (unregistered)

    Coluld someone please please please PLEASE explain to me why other programmers (especially those of the Microsoft Persuasion) INSIST on naming their column and/or names stuff lke m22, c33, etc!?

    I've been dealing with ALOT of code recently developed by "geniuses" who use these naming conventions. :(

    I recently got a job offer from some place, and as a "test", they sent me database table and wanted me to write code to use it as a mail queue system. Neddless to say, the table name was tblM_Q and the columns were named stuff like col_mail_f_send, col_mail_tcl_send, etc.

    I simply replied that I had found alternative employment.

  • (unregistered)

    If this is hell, I am in hell every day! I see this kind of... well... demonic "solutions" in many large scale solutions on a day to day basis. However I must confess that I often wonder why I'm not givin it all up for a nice mindless job in a supermarket. I feel your pain Nikolay... you are not alone.

    Best regards, JH, a developer in hell.

  • (cs) in reply to Sweets
    Sweets:
    "dbo.m15.val AS Tem"

    I assume this is the temperature. 
    Couldn't spare that extra 'p'


    No way could that extra 'p' be used - then it could be confused with "temporary"! :[:)]
  • (unregistered)

    For those of you unfamiliar with Delphi; the dataset components being used here are based on the BDE which was originally designed for use with Paradox tables.  Paradox for those who never had to deal with it is a flat file database system similar to FoxPro and DBase.  Anyway BDE datasets don't really understand SQL, the BDE replaces SQL with stuff it understands. Being flat file based the BDE basically works with data like is in an array... each row is an element of an array and where clauses create an index on the columns mentioned in the where clause the rows are then sorted according the that index and then the system only shows you data between record number x and record number y. So what they do is load all the data locally turn it into internal arrays and then replace the where clauses with index ranges... Nasty

    And Nikolay... did you start organising the datasets before you took the screen shot, or is this how you found the datamodule?

  • (unregistered) in reply to

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">Oh, I tried ... I really tried to reorganize it, but I gave up after 6 hours moving objects just to discover there are more and more objects beneath them...</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">This screenshot is from the original code as I got it.</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">I wish I saved a screenshot of the warnings once I compiled the program. I still have the code, but I lost some components and I can't compile it anymore.</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">To actually clean the mess I had to re-develop the system from scratch, because the database design was terrible (you see the table and field names), everything in the datamodules and all the related functions there were named accordingly and just thinking a bit one could replace 90% of the code with a few simple functions getting a few extra parameters. The code was full of "magical numbers" scattered everywhere. </FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">I told the guys, that the code of the system is absolutely s**y and the only solution to clean it up is to re-design it from scratch, but I wouldn't be able to do it all for a week. Their response was they don't have any time and all they wante for the moment was a quick fix and I managed to do it for them. I guess it won't be a surprise to anyone, that I fixed it by extracting the hardcoded parameters of the parsing function into an ini file so next time their hardware changes a bit they will be able to adjust themselves the column order, sizes, separator etc.</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">I heard they started re-developing the system using a student from the local university.</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">But guys, this one wasn't as bad as the Hotel system. This masterpiece truly beats anything I've dealt with so far :)</FONT>

  • (unregistered) in reply to

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">I heard they started re-developing the system using a student from the local university.</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">But guys, this one wasn't as bad as the Hotel system. This masterpiece truly beats anything I've dealt with so far :)</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">Well lets be honest Delphi is a little easier to keep straight than Access.  You can have a really bad design and really bad naming conventions but Pascal really does force you to write almost readable code.  It (Pascal) was an extreme reaction to the Cobol and Fortan coding styles of the time...  just think the same system could very easily could have written in VBA using Access tables and then I think it would have been very similar to the Hotel system</FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef"></FONT> 

  • (unregistered) in reply to loneprogrammer

    m22? c40? i16?

    You sunk my battleship!!!

  • (cs) in reply to
    :

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef"></FONT>

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef"> just think the same system could very easily could have written in VBA using Access tables and then I think it would have been very similar to the Hotel system</FONT>

     

    Nooooo. The Hotel system was uniqie. And a lot bigger than this program. I guess this guy could do in Delphi a system as terrible as the other one too. I guess all he needed was more time, but he was on the wrong track - he actually named lots of functions and variables ok, instead of numbering them like the guy from Austria. And all forms had meaningful names compared to res_501 and x_k_book_0701_01 etc.

  • (unregistered)

    This page doesn't render properly in firefox. I've had the same problem with a few other pages on this site.

  • (cs) in reply to

    It's ecause you are anonymous. The site doesn't like people who do not dare to let themselves be known. [:P]

    Drak

  • (unregistered)

    I am using Firefox and I don't see anything wrong with how the page is rendered. 

  • (unregistered) in reply to

    I'm using Firefox and I can't see this page at all.

  • (cs) in reply to
    :
    I am using Firefox and I don't see anything wrong with how the page is rendered.
    :
    I'm using Firefox and I can't see this page at all.

    Dear Anonymous

    You seem to be suffering confusion. Are you sure someone else hasn't hijacked your account and is impersonating you?

    Yours with concern

    Alan

  • (cs)

    I did Delphi from beta (I was in support for PDoxWin and decided I had to convert to Delphi soon after I saw it) until VS02 and .NET.

    And- While I have not seen a data module that bad- it's simply because I've never seen the components placed on top of each other like that- it looks like it was done on purpose...

    But I have seen MORE components in a DM and that makes it look horrible- I've also seem BUNCHES of DM's per project.

    I eventually decided that no one under my direction was going to create a datamodule, period.

    Things got a lot nicer at that point.

  • (cs)

    i suggest from now on this forum to be only accessible to people with 18 years+ programming experience or non-programmers. it is against federal law to display such damaging code without warning the faint-hearted.

  • (unregistered)

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">Need to correct the post describing the workings of the BDE. While the BDE is getting old in the tooth and is not really recommended for new development, it is not *nearly* as bad as described. When connecting to SQL databases it uses SQL and fetches rows just as with any other proper SQL access. It has its own SQL dialect for Paradox/Dbase but that does not come into play when dealing with MSSQL, Oracle, etc. It has SQL drivers for each of these that generate proper SQL in each case and, if you specify your SQL, that is passed through directly to the server. Of course Delphi also provides ADO and other means of db connectivity besides the BDE.</FONT>

    Now back to the program in progress... :) 

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef"></FONT> 

  • (cs) in reply to

    I too, am using firefox, and the only bug I currently notice (aside from the known quoting bug) is that when a thread initially loads, sometimes the table that shows the posts is very narrow (1/4 of a screen width) instead of full-width.  If I use the Back button and then the Forward button to reload the page, it then renders correctly.  I am of the opinion that this is a FireFox issue and not a Forum issue.


  • (unregistered) in reply to Blue

    <FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #efefef">Opera doesn't seem to have any problem with this site and the only problem I saw in firefox is, that the ads in the right column go to the middle of the page not to the top. Same with Netscape actually.</FONT>

  • (cs)

    The middle of the page bug is a very simple css bug (brought to by the Only Tested On IE Group Inc) caused by using one of the random IE-only duplicate css values, and steadfastly refusing to test or research. Hey, who needs specs when you have code-n-compile?

    I wasn't looking closely enough at first, but now that I do, I notice this falls into megaview territory: Join every table into one megaview. (And then make lazy views out of that, apparently.)

    My friend was most amazed by the way hours were spend sorting out the gui cesspool with no apparent headway.

  • (unregistered)

    as a delphi programmer myself i find it hard to believe that the above mess was created by a programmer..... i think this is a fine example of the short comings of child slave labour or maybe a test of the limitations of a trained chimp

  • ajones (unregistered) in reply to
    Anonymous:
    m22? c40? i16?

    You sunk my battleship!!!


    Thanks for putting that in my head, i'm sure the next idiot dba I come across will be really pleased when I can't help but blurt that out.
  • The Insane Monkey (unregistered) in reply to skicow

    He was one of the inventors of Ada.... ;)


  • (cs)

    I love it when old main-framers graduate to the PC.  I'm currently engaged in working with a system whose naming convention is something like this: DGBNCNT (DogBoneCount).

    [:D]

  • (cs) in reply to Otis Mukinfus
    Otis Mukinfus:

    I love it when old main-framers graduate to the PC.  I'm currently engaged in working with a system whose naming convention is something like this: DGBNCNT (DogBoneCount).

    [:D]



    Can't be SAP, SAP uses 5-character names like LGTYP.
    It's not Movex eighter, since Movex uses 6-character names like OPORNO. (sic!)
    So it must be a very modern system, with 40% more cpm (chararcter per name) power than SAP!
  • Bobby (unregistered) in reply to

    I am interested in becoming a meterological programmer what are the courses i need<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" color=#800080> too take.</FONT>

    <FONT color=#800080>[email protected]</FONT>

  • TonyTwoTones (unregistered)

    My hat's off to Nikolay. I would've left that company like a bat out of hell.

Leave a comment on “The Meteorological Station In Hell”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #31365:

« Return to Article