Coding Horrors: You can gather all your technical debt into one easy framework!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Coding Horrors: You can gather all your technical debt into one easy framework!

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raminasi: Jan 25, 2005; a last drink with no ice

Thermopyle posted:

Hah! I skimmed right over that.

Oh god yeah, I didn't see the horror at first but I think it was just my brain protecting me.

# ? May 8, 2011 08:54

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# ? May 17, 2024 14:22

PalmTreeFun: Apr 25, 2010; *toot*

I don't know how I missed that one either. Sure, parse the string literal "false" and use that as a boolean, I'm sure nobody will mind! :downs:

# ? May 8, 2011 09:01

zeekner: Jul 14, 2007

Is that better or worse than (Java):

code:

int whatever = Integer.parseInt("1");

The same program threw generic Exceptions from EVERY function, then ignored them in main(). Thank god it wasn't commercial, but it was still depressing to read.

# ? May 8, 2011 09:23

zootm: Aug 8, 2006; We used to be better friends.

Geekner posted:

The same program threw generic Exceptions from EVERY function, then ignored them in main().

If your desire is to crash when an exception occurs, this is not a terrible way to go about it. Not narrowing the exception type is unprofessional but checked exceptions make people do terrible things.

The actual code you posted is pretty stupid, though.

# ? May 9, 2011 12:45

A A 2 3 5 8 K: Nov 24, 2003; Illiteracy... what does that word even mean?

Sysadmin horror:

code:

Access to and use of this server is restricted to those activities and personel expressly permitted 
by <company name>. THIS MEANS YOU!

# ? May 9, 2011 15:31

baquerd: Jul 2, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

A A 2 3 5 8 K posted:

code:

Access to and use of this server is restricted to those activities and personel expressly permitted 
by <company name>. THIS MEANS YOU!

Thanks for the permissions and access, but what's a "personel"?

# ? May 9, 2011 15:37

A A 2 3 5 8 K: Nov 24, 2003; Illiteracy... what does that word even mean?

baquerd posted:

Thanks for the permissions and access, but what's a "personel"?

Evidence that people who can't spell are sloppy thinkers in general.

# ? May 9, 2011 16:47

BigRedDot: Mar 6, 2008

It's like pulling teeth to get folks here to utilize the issue tracker, but even when they do, it's not like it is set up well. There's a single field for "priority", here are the very non-orthogonal options:

code:

blocker
critcal
major
minor
trivial
blocked/waiting
Ready to close
Needs testing

# ? May 9, 2011 22:31

Fiend: Dec 2, 2001

BigRedDot posted:

It's like pulling teeth to get folks here to utilize the issue tracker, but even when they do, it's not like it is set up well. There's a single field for "priority", here are the very non-orthogonal options:
code:
blocker
critcal
major
minor
trivial
blocked/waiting
Ready to close
Needs testing

In a previous team we had three fields: severity, priority, and impact, which were all used interchangeably causing PMs to a new field indicating in which sequence bugs were to be fixed based on the visibility in the user base.

We ended up trimming it down to two classifications, priority and severity. Priority for the order in which the end users would like to see things fixed, and severity which was set based on symptoms and effects caused by the bug.

# ? May 9, 2011 23:28

Zombywuf: Mar 29, 2008

Bugtrackers should have 3 priorities:

On fire.

Not on fire.

Wontfix.

# ? May 9, 2011 23:37

Fiend: Dec 2, 2001

Zombywuf posted:

Bugtrackers should have 3 priorities:

On fire.

Not on fire.

Wontfix.

Yes but what is the business impact, severity, and third redundant value denoting a varying degree of urgency?

# ? May 9, 2011 23:42

baquerd: Jul 2, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

Zombywuf posted:

Bugtrackers should have 3 priorities:

On fire.

Not on fire.

Wontfix.

This plus issues are delivered by color coded pneumatic tubes.

# ? May 9, 2011 23:46

tef: May 30, 2004; -> some l-system crap ->

Zombywuf posted:

Bugtrackers should have 3 priorities:

On fire.

Not on fire.

Wontfix.

I think you mean:

Fix this yesterday

Fix this right now

Fix this at some point (i.e never)

# ? May 10, 2011 00:11

MononcQc: May 29, 2007

tef posted:

Fix this at some point (i.e never)

The best kind of bug. Backlog it, make sure not to mention it at the next meeting, wait for new guy to be hired and give up.

# ? May 10, 2011 01:04

Zhentar: Sep 28, 2003; Brilliant Master Genius

tef posted:

Fix this at some point (i.e never)

I fixed one of these that was entered into the tracker while I was in middle school.

# ? May 10, 2011 01:19

Janitor Prime: Jan 22, 2004; PC LOAD LETTER

What da fuck does that mean; Fun Shoe

tef posted:

Fix this at some point (i.e never)

I always schedule in an extra week of developer time for fixing these old rear end bugs and adding in smaller feature requests.

# ? May 10, 2011 01:43

Mustach: Mar 2, 2003; In this long line, there's been some real strange genes. You've got 'em all, with some extras thrown in.

"I mark tickets as Urgent A, Urgent B, Urgent C or Urgent D. Urgent A is the most important. Urgent D, you don't even really have to worry about."

# ? May 10, 2011 02:28

PDP-1: Oct 12, 2004; It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

People will always mark tickets with as highest priority so that their pet issue "gets fixed faster". Just cut out the middleman and mark everything as highest priority automatically.

e: Since everything now has the same priority, just normalize the results to determine what to do first. If you have ten items marked as Priority 1 that's the same as having ten items with Priority 0.1. Since Priority 0.1 isn't very important at all feel free to take a long lunch.

PDP-1 fucked around with this message at 02:55 on May 10, 2011

# ? May 10, 2011 02:35

bobthecheese: Jun 7, 2006; Although I've never met Martha Stewart, I'll probably never birth her child.

MEAT TREAT posted:

I always schedule in an extra week of developer time for fixing these old rear end bugs and adding in smaller feature requests.

Except that 70% of them aren't even valid bugs anymore, because the code has evolved around them, and everyone involved when the bug was reported no longer has anything to do with the project.

Also: bugs classed as "critical/blocker" which are a minor interface tweak to a prototype/mockup, and has "as discussed on phone" as part of the description.

# ? May 10, 2011 03:07

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

Best of all: the "low-priority" bug/feature request that is ignored for 9 months, then suddenly becomes the most important thing in the universe and the entire team is chastisied for not having addressed it. By the same people responsible for it not getting time allocated to it, of course. Then they insist that it be fixed in the current iteration, causing things to be shuffled off to the next iteration. Then the team gets poo poo for not having done the things that were shuffled off to make room for the most important thing in the universe.

Repeat a month later with different backlog items.

This post belongs in the "management horrors" thread, though. It seems like some folks in management positions are unable to understand the this simple concept: "our team can get X things done in a 2-week release. If you want to add something of size Y, something equally sized won't be done."

New Yorp New Yorp fucked around with this message at 03:41 on May 10, 2011

# ? May 10, 2011 03:39

Janitor Prime: Jan 22, 2004; PC LOAD LETTER

What da fuck does that mean; Fun Shoe

bobthecheese posted:

Except that 70% of them aren't even valid bugs anymore, because the code has evolved around them, and everyone involved when the bug was reported no longer has anything to do with the project.

Exactly, free week off!

# ? May 10, 2011 04:02

csammis: Aug 26, 2003; Mental Institution

bobthecheese posted:

Except that 70% of them aren't even valid bugs anymore, because the code has evolved around them, and everyone involved when the bug was reported no longer has anything to do with the project.

I spent a non-trivial portion of last week going through my team's defect backlog and categorizing out those 70% so I can ~~say gently caress 'em~~ mark as wontfix and never look back :unsmith:

e: ^^^^ goddamn it, I did it wrong!

# ? May 10, 2011 04:04

Wheany: Mar 17, 2006; Spinya^{ha^{ha^haha}ha}ha_{ha_{ha_haha}ha}ha!; Doctor Rope

Javascript, e is some HTML element:

code:

e.getParent().getNext().getNext().getFirst().value = e.getParent().getNext().getFirst().value;

Unsurprisingly, this doesn't work the same way in every browser (because of broken HTML).

# ? May 10, 2011 12:39

Hughlander: May 11, 2005

Project I was on awhile ago just has A B C severity and no way to prioritize them with-in that. Technically A was supposed to be a blocker that would stop the project, crash, couldn't start up, 90% of features were missing due to bug etc... B was any other bug that we couldn't ship with, C was something that we could ship with but fix later.

Sometime before shipping a new field was added 'Dev Priority' which meant it was of a particular priority to someone and should be addressed. Does a Dev priority B come before an A that crashes the game? Who knows! Within a month every bug (Even the C) was 'Dev priority'

# ? May 10, 2011 14:31

Randomosity: Sep 21, 2003; My stalker WAS watching me...

My co-worker is a really smart programmer and a great guy, but he is convinced empty lines make code ugly and hard to read.

:eng99:

# ? May 10, 2011 16:03

HFX: Nov 29, 2004

PDP-1 posted:

People will always mark tickets with as highest priority so that their pet issue "gets fixed faster". Just cut out the middleman and mark everything as highest priority automatically.

e: Since everything now has the same priority, just normalize the results to determine what to do first. If you have ten items marked as Priority 1 that's the same as having ten items with Priority 0.1. Since Priority 0.1 isn't very important at all feel free to take a long lunch.

This is my experience with any contract work we do. Everything is a show stopper / on fire situation that isn't just a purely interface or format change. Also, if they do classify something lower at first expect it to become show stopper as soon as you deliver patches for a few of the current show stoppers. If their are no major bugs, then all the tweaks become show stoppers. It really is annoying and leads to burn out.

Randomosity posted:

My co-worker is a really smart programmer and a great guy, but he is convinced empty lines make code ugly and hard to read.

Sometimes they do. Like when you coworker puts empty lines between every line of a method like it was some double spaced paper. Arg list too long, yeah, double space that too.

# ? May 10, 2011 16:14

Zombywuf: Mar 29, 2008

The top priority in a bug tracker should be reserved for everything that requires everyone down tools and work together to fix it right away. By everyone I include the team that filed the bug in the first place. It can help facilitate the customer's involvement in the process if you hold the triage meeting at their desk.

It doesn't take long for people to start respecting sensible bug priorities.

(this probably doesn't work well in shrink wrap software environments)

# ? May 10, 2011 17:52

A A 2 3 5 8 K: Nov 24, 2003; Illiteracy... what does that word even mean?

Randomosity posted:

My co-worker is a really smart programmer and a great guy, but he is convinced empty lines make code ugly and hard to read.

For some reason I've never been able to figure out, software developers can solve complex problems every day but most act like they have the capabilities of a drooling retard when it comes to reading code that isn't formatted the way they're used to. As if it isn't trivial, and a small inconvenience at most, to switch between reading code with braces or not-braces, different whitespace rules, or whatever.

# ? May 10, 2011 17:56

Thermopyle: Jul 1, 2003; ...the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. �Bertrand Russell

A A 2 3 5 8 K posted:

For some reason I've never been able to figure out, software developers can solve complex problems every day but most act like they have the capabilities of a drooling retard when it comes to reading code that isn't formatted the way they're used to. As if it isn't trivial, and a small inconvenience at most, to switch between reading code with braces or not-braces, different whitespace rules, or whatever.

To be fair, it seems like whatever code style you're used to is less of an intellectual thing that you can just reason yourself around and more of a preference issue. It's like...I can't stand the taste of fish. I know that most people like fish, and that there is nothing wrong with fish, but that doesn't mean I can just logic myself into enjoying the taste.

I cut my teeth on Python, but have been doing most of my recent work in Java. I just feel...uncomfortable...reading and writing it.

Of course, I don't go around trying to tell people that the "look" of Java is wrong, either.

# ? May 10, 2011 18:06

qntm: Jun 17, 2009

HFX posted:

Sometimes they do. Like when you coworker puts empty lines between every line of a method like it was some double spaced paper. Arg list too long, yeah, double space that too.

Some time ago I had the idea for a code editor where each blank line would be half the height of a line with text in it, just to make it more pleasant to read. I never got around to looking for an editor which actually does this but I think it'd be neat.

# ? May 10, 2011 18:33

NotShadowStar: Sep 20, 2000

Thermopyle posted:

I just feel...uncomfortable...reading and writing it.

It's okay son, there are lots of people who feel uncomfortable and think just like you!

# ? May 10, 2011 18:34

Fiend: Dec 2, 2001

I think the operative terms here are "Coding for Usability" and "Adhering to a Common Standard". If your team is using Visual Studio, show your devs how to use StyleCop & nArrange and get everyone onboard.

# ? May 10, 2011 19:14

Dr Monkeysee: Oct 11, 2002; just a fox like a hundred thousand others; Nap Ghost

Randomosity posted:

My co-worker is a really smart programmer and a great guy, but he is convinced empty lines make code ugly and hard to read.

Run all your source code through a minifier before checkin. It's not like the whitespace does anything anyway!

_{may not work for python}

# ? May 11, 2011 00:42

bobthecheese: Jun 7, 2006; Although I've never met Martha Stewart, I'll probably never birth her child.

Monkeyseesaw posted:

Run all your source code through a minifier before checkin. It's not like the whitespace does anything anyway!

_{may not work for python}

Or whitespace.

# ? May 11, 2011 01:52

Opinion Haver: Apr 9, 2007

quote:

Falcon is ...

...an Open Source, simple, fast and powerful programming language, easy to learn and to feel comfortable with, and a scripting engine ready to empower mission-critical multithreaded applications.

Falcon provides six integrated programming paradigms: procedural, object oriented, prototype oriented, functional, tabular and message oriented. And you don't have to master all of them; you just need to pick the ingredients you prefer, and let the code to follow your inspiration.

code:

function falsifier(): return false
function verifier(): return true
 
any( .[ 
   .[falsifier .[printl "First call..."]]
   .[verifier .[printl "Second call..."]]
   .[falsifier .[printl "Third arg..."]]
])

function inc( x ): x+=1 
 
calling = []                   // our execution canvas
calling.value = 10             // initializing
calling += .[ .[inc &value]]   // adding an increment call
calling += .[ .[inc &value]]   // and another one
eval( calling ) 
> "After increment: ", calling.value

Oh god, it's like some horrible hosed-up LISP.

# ? May 11, 2011 20:04

Hammerite: Mar 9, 2007; And you don't remember what I said here, either, but it was pompous and stupid.; Jade Ear Joe

yaoi prophet posted:

http://falconpl.org/index.ftd?page_id=facts

Witness the power of facts! :yum:

# ? May 11, 2011 20:13

floWenoL: Oct 23, 2002

yaoi prophet posted:

Oh god, it's like some horrible hosed-up LISP.

The icing on the cake is the unreadable dark-on-black color scheme they use for their code snippets.

# ? May 11, 2011 20:34

Opinion Haver: Apr 9, 2007

# ? May 11, 2011 21:20

Jabor: Jul 16, 2010; #1 Loser at SpaceChem

yaoi prophet posted:

Whoah, this language does DWIM on English as well?

# ? May 11, 2011 22:40

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# ? May 17, 2024 14:22

Thermopyle: Jul 1, 2003; ...the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. �Bertrand Russell

Jabor posted:

Whoah, this language does DWIM on English as well?

Haha!

# ? May 12, 2011 00:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Cavern of COBOL > Coding Horrors: You can gather all your technical debt into one easy framework!

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