\r\n

jofli

Reflector showed me this 'gem' in a contractors project:

string cBRK = Convert.ToChar(int.Parse("13")).ToString() + Convert.ToChar(int.Parse("10")).ToString();

this.ReportStatus("93101Bytes" + cBRK + BytesRecieved.ToString() + cBRK + fileSize.ToString() + cBRK);

kind regards, JoFli

Thomas Weller 0

I bet, the creator of this is proud of his clever and 'creative' solution... :sigh:

blog.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.

Ian Shlasko

Careful, that might break internationally. I've had issues with one of my users, where his region settings would screw up and the computer would interpret a leading "1" as a "+" (So "13" would be "+3")... So he SHOULD have added in the proper NumberFormatInfo for invariant culture settings! (Yes, this is a joke... Sorry, It's the best I can do at 10am)

Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

dan sh

Is this called obfuscation?

50-50-90 rule: Anytime I have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability I'll get it wrong...!!

PIEBALDconsult

A BASIC developer new to C#?

jofli wrote:

Recieved

And maybe didn't graduate high school either? :-D

Ian Shlasko

If that's obfuscation, I'm not impressed... If I wanted to make it REALLY confusing, I'd do something like this:

const string blarphnik = "51209576120381929170992";
string elkabong = Convert.ToChar(int.Parse(blarphnik.SubString(1,2))

int.Parse(blarphnik /* If I had a pet monkey, I'd name it blarphnik */.SubString(8 /* What a nice number */,1)))
Convert.ToChar(int.Parse(blarphnik.SubString(18, 2))
/ int.Parse(blarphnik.SubString(6,1) /* Todo: Fix this */));

And then I would publish this as part of a self-help book entitled "How to Drive a Programmer Insane"

Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

PIEBALDconsult

Make the constant string a resource and put the constant ints in the config. :-D

Ian Shlasko

No no no... It's harder to hide it that way. With code like this, you want it buried deeply inside a commonly-used DLL in a not-quite-obsolete language, so when you get laid off and the next guy in line decides to rewrite the code and modernize it, they have a heart attack when they see it. At least, That was probably what some of my predecessors were thinking...

Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

Luc Pattyn

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

A BASIC developer new to C#?

No way. Any Basic developer would use either Chr$(13) & Chr$(10) or vbCrLf, both much more readable than the OP. :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]

I only read code that is properly indented, and rendered in a non-proportional font; hint: use PRE tags in forum messages

David Skelly

My guess is that this is an artifact of Reflector, not of the original coder. I do know that in VB, the Chr() function actually does use Convert.ToChar internally so my guess is that C# does the same. Who knows what Environment.NewLine does internally. I assume that the compiler has in-lined the Chr function, and Reflector has simply given you back what the compiler produced. Anyone with too much free time on their hands and a handy copy of Reflector is invited to experiment to find out what the compiler does with this sort of thing. Reflector is showing you what the code looks like after the compiler has munged it around and played merry havoc with your beautiful code.

David Skelly

OK, there is no Chr function in C# but you know what I mean.

dan sh

I should have placed the joke icon. :doh:

50-50-90 rule: Anytime I have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability I'll get it wrong...!!

OriginalGriff

Tcha! The youth and inexperience shows! Every real programmer knows that the best compression method is to use a random number generator with the correct seed to regenerate the uncompressed file - then all you need to do is send the seed. Extending this:

        Random rs;
        const string blarphnik = "51209576120381929170992";
        int dontTouchThis = int.Parse(blarphnik.Substring(12,1));
        rs = new Random(dontTouchThis);
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(2);
        sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(rs.Next(15)));
        int dontTouchThisEither = int.Parse(blarphnik.Substring(10,1));
        rs = new Random(dontTouchThisEither);
        sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(rs.Next(15)));
        string cBRK = sb.ToString();

No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced. This message is made of fully recyclable Zeros and Ones "Rumour has it that if you play Microsoft CDs backwards you will hear Satanic messages.Worse still, is that if you play them forwards they will install Windows"

Ian Shlasko

Oh right, I totally forgot about that... But you have to comment your code to make sure it's legible!

Random rs;
const string blarphnik = "51209576120381929170992";
int dontTouchThis = int.Parse(blarphnik.Substring(12,1));
rs = new Random(dontTouchThis /* That's what SHE said! */);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(2);
sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(rs.Next(15)));
int dontTouchThisEither = int.Parse(blarphnik.Substring(10,1));
rs = new Random(dontTouchThisEither /* That's what her SISTER said */);
sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(rs.Next(15)));
string cBRK = sb.ToString();

Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in? Author of Guardians of Xen (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel)

Lost User

The correct code in C# is "\r\n" which is ldstr "\r\n" in MSIL (which is generated exactly like that by the C# compiler)

David Skelly

The OP doesn't say that the code was written in C#, it was reverse engineered using Reflector. Reflector is capable of taking code written in VB and decompiling it back into C#. The resulting C# code may look pretty odd, but you will at least be able to see what it is doing.

jofli

That's right, but afaik he only codes c#.

David Skelly

Well, OK, maybe he's just an idiot. As far as I am aware, Reflector doesn't stop people from writing bad code and will happily decompile bad C# back into bad C#. GIGO, as they say. For what it's worth, the MS .NET Framework implementation of C# Environment.NewLine returns a literal constant "\r\n". No idea what Mono does. So if the contractor wrote this in C#, goodness only knows what was going through his brain. Nothing, probably, if he's like some of the contractors I've known.

jofli

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

jofli wrote: Recieved And maybe didn't graduate high school either? Big Grin

http://www.recieved.co.uk/[^] Well, at least he tried to use English namings. And I must admit that sometimes it's not that easy, if you're not a native speaker.

PIEBALDconsult

Ian Shlasko wrote:

It's harder to hide it that way.

No, it hides it in different places; your way has all the information in one place. Plus, using a resource and config makes it brittle -- if someone changes or removes the entries chaos will ensue.