How to be popular among your colleagues

[notmasteryet]

1. Always repeat obvious things twice.

Enum NumberSize
Bit_8 = 8
Bit_16 = 16
Bit_32 = 32
Bit_64 = 64
Bit_128 = 128
End Enum

2. Hide all comments behind visible portion of screen - your co-workers do not need them.

Public Function CBin_Number(ByVal InputNumber As Double, ByVal InputNumberSize As NumberSize) As String 'converts large numbers into strings 8, 16,32, 64, or 128 characters long
Dim FinalBinNumber As String

3. Show that 128 zeros and ones can be easily fit in 48 bits mantissa.

Dim TempNumber As Double = InputNumber
Dim PlaceCounter As Integer

4. Always remind that computer cannot be trusted even with simple operation of subtraction.

Select Case InputNumberSize
    Case NumberSize.Bit\_8
        PlaceCounter = 7
    Case NumberSize.Bit\_16
        PlaceCounter = 15
    Case NumberSize.Bit\_32
        PlaceCounter = 31
    Case NumberSize.Bit\_64
        PlaceCounter = 63
    Case NumberSize.Bit\_128
        PlaceCounter = 127
End Select

5. Do not listen anybody (even yourself) and choose most interesting way to handle the task.

If (TempNumber - (2 ^ PlaceCounter)) > 0 Then
    PlaceCounter = 127
End If

6. Be simple – the String class is the best thing since sliced bread.

Do Until (PlaceCounter < 0)
    If (TempNumber - (2 ^ PlaceCounter)) >= 0 Then
        FinalBinNumber = FinalBinNumber & "1"
        TempNumber = TempNumber - (2 ^ PlaceCounter)
    ElseIf (TempNumber - (2 ^ PlaceCounter)) < 0 Then
        FinalBinNumber = FinalBinNumber & "0"
    End If
    PlaceCounter = PlaceCounter - 1
Loop

7. Always add checks for weird cases

If FinalBinNumber = "11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111" Then
    FinalBinNumber = "11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 or Error: Number Too Large"
End If
Return FinalBinNumber

End Function

Public Shared Function ReaderRev(ByVal BinString As String) As String 'converts strings into ASCII character string

8. Show that you are bilingual, e.g. by using QBASIC and VB.NET constructs

Dim tempstring As String = Replace(BinString, " ", "")
Dim tempbinstr As String
Dim TempChar As Char

9. Do not re

[Thomas Weller 0]

Hi, horrible indeed... :doh: But why would someone be 'popular among his colleagues' when programming like this? I'd rather think Hey, this is a guy who is not really good in his profession when I read things like that in someone else's code. And this means: Much to do for colleagues (refactoring, hard to read/understand) and much potential trouble (likelihood of errors is high, maintainability is hard) - so he makes his colleagues lifes harder... :confused: Regards Thomas

www.thomas-weller.de Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
Programmer - an organism that turns coffee into software.

[Mycroft Holmes]

This may help sarcasm[^] It does not always pass through translation.

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH

[QuiJohn]

#7 is my favorite... brilliant error message. "It's either this 200 digit number, or it's too big"

---

He said, "Boy I'm just old and lonely, But thank you for your concern, Here's wishing you a Happy New Year." I wished him one back in return.

[Krirk]

What wrong with this

notmasteryet wrote:

Enum NumberSize Bit_8 = 8 Bit_16 = 16 Bit_32 = 32 Bit_64 = 64 Bit_128 = 128 End Enum

I think it is good practice. Do you have any better practice ?

My blog

[notmasteryet]

Enum NumberSize
EightBits = 8
SixteenBits = 16
ThirtyTwoBits = 32
SixtyFourBits = 64
HundredTwentyEightBits = 128
End Enum

:) IMHO in this particular case, there is no effective use of the enumeration (see #4). There is no checks on invalid enumeration values either; most common call of the CBin_Number function was performed with argument CType(size, NumberSize) where size is an integer. It is hard to find best practices for enumerations since it just grouped constants. Usually all enumeration replaced by the Strategy Pattern during refactoring (see http://sourcemaking.com/refactoring/replace-type-code-with-state-strategy[^] or http://www.jeremyjarrell.com/archive/2007/10/28/64.aspx[^]). Type casting to enumeration datatype does not do validation, so a callie have to validate enumaration value by itself. However, by decalaring enumeration as

Enum NumberSize
Bit_8
Bit_16
Bit_32
Bit_64
Bit_128
End Enum

you may perform range (in)validation InputNumberSize < NumberSize.Bit_8 OrElse InputNumberSize > NumberSize.Bit_16, it also allows compliler to optimize Select statement code execution. Do you think change NumberSize to an integer type would introduce more problems?