database hell
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Hi All, I had to move from .NET to PHP for a bit and now the system am working on is one hell. They have a table with around 47-50 columns. It's not at all normalized and everything is in one table. Now am re-developing registration process and it's a nightmare to update each column. Is it common practice in PHP ? The problem is i know its crap and i still have to work on the existing system. :(
PHP is like VB for the web: nothing particularly wrong with the language, but the culture of cutting corners is very strong there.
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DaveyM69 wrote:
the 'freeness'™ of PHP often attracts less than experienced developers who are totally self taught and therefore know no better developers who couldn't cope with learning VB
FTFY!
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
OriginalGriff wrote:
developers who couldn't cope with learning VB
Not possible surely, not without a severe mental defect. :-)
ragnaroknrol The Internet is For Porn[^]
Pete o'Hanlon: If it wasn't insulting tools, I'd say you were dumber than a bag of spanners. -
Hi All, I had to move from .NET to PHP for a bit and now the system am working on is one hell. They have a table with around 47-50 columns. It's not at all normalized and everything is in one table. Now am re-developing registration process and it's a nightmare to update each column. Is it common practice in PHP ? The problem is i know its crap and i still have to work on the existing system. :(
In my personal pecking order the PHP people even are below the VB people. They don't only deal with a language that encourages awful coding, they actually have cultivated bad coding.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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In my personal pecking order the PHP people even are below the VB people. They don't only deal with a language that encourages awful coding, they actually have cultivated bad coding.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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CDP1802 wrote:
PHP people even are below the VB people
And now you can imagine how am feeling after working in Assembly Language,C++,Java,.NET.. 3 more months and ill get rid of it but saying that Facebook is in PHP ???
Of course I know that these are stereotypes, but in both cases the stereotypes have the same origin. Both PHP and VB have been sold to the noobs as being 'easy'. In fact, the only easy thing to do is to do it wrong and any mechanism which might help, like object orientation or type safety, is (or in VB's case was) percieved as unneeded complication. Stereotype or not, but God save us from having to work on anything from somebody so resistant to learning.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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Of course I know that these are stereotypes, but in both cases the stereotypes have the same origin. Both PHP and VB have been sold to the noobs as being 'easy'. In fact, the only easy thing to do is to do it wrong and any mechanism which might help, like object orientation or type safety, is (or in VB's case was) percieved as unneeded complication. Stereotype or not, but God save us from having to work on anything from somebody so resistant to learning.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
What a bitch that i'm currently a junior VB developer lol! But seriously do you guys detest VB that much?
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What a bitch that i'm currently a junior VB developer lol! But seriously do you guys detest VB that much?
Shrimpersfan wrote:
do you guys detest VB that much?
I used to work a lot in C#, but now I work most in VB.NET, which isn't bad (not as nice though). VB6... now that was a language to detest (I unfortunately had to work with that as well).
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What a bitch that i'm currently a junior VB developer lol! But seriously do you guys detest VB that much?
VB's an easy target and is considered publicly by the coding snobs to be the lowest of the low. However, it is a mature and capapble language and like any tool, if used correctly, can do a top rate job. I moved from it to C# several years ago and I'm glad I did, but if I had to I would have no issues going back to VB as my primary language.
Dave
If this helped, please vote & accept answer!
Binging is like googling, it just feels dirtier. Please take your VB.NET out of our nice case sensitive forum.(Pete O'Hanlon)
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn) -
What a bitch that i'm currently a junior VB developer lol! But seriously do you guys detest VB that much?
By all means, no. It's more like I hold little love for the stereotype VB noob who insists on endlessly producing material for the code horror board (and endless pain for me to clean such a mess up) and I'm more than happy whenever someone turns out not to fit with this stereotype at all.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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By all means, no. It's more like I hold little love for the stereotype VB noob who insists on endlessly producing material for the code horror board (and endless pain for me to clean such a mess up) and I'm more than happy whenever someone turns out not to fit with this stereotype at all.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
I like to think of myself as the latter. I also do PHP and C# though. VB.Net is still my home, as I see nothing wrong with it. In plus, my current course requires it. Glad I don't have any of my old code around to look at though... I remember hardcoding arrays in a way that would make the coding horrors section xD
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Hi All, I had to move from .NET to PHP for a bit and now the system am working on is one hell. They have a table with around 47-50 columns. It's not at all normalized and everything is in one table. Now am re-developing registration process and it's a nightmare to update each column. Is it common practice in PHP ? The problem is i know its crap and i still have to work on the existing system. :(
I'm currently working with a database with 60-odd columns. :wtf: I took a 20-column subset of this table (all I was working with), and normalized it into SEVEN SEPARATE TABLES. Talk about ridiculous. Did I mention this software is the library system at my local highschool, that they pay support for EACH YEAR? Talk about crappy. I only have read-only access too...
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What a bitch that i'm currently a junior VB developer lol! But seriously do you guys detest VB that much?
Some languages are just more resistant to sloppy coding (like where type safety is strictly enforced, etc.) but VB(6) and PHP are by no means weak or bad languages and they each have their pros and cons depending on the situation. The only reason people perceive them as such is because (as has been mentioned in earlier posts) they are easy to learn and very flexible so unskilled devs often get their hands on them and do terrible, terrible things! When you see what skilled developers can do with these languages you will be amazed at how powerful they really are. Be proud of being a VB dev (hopefully in VB.NET since VB6 is slowly disappearing) and ignore people who knock the language. After all, being a developer has nothing to do with syntax.
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Some languages are just more resistant to sloppy coding (like where type safety is strictly enforced, etc.) but VB(6) and PHP are by no means weak or bad languages and they each have their pros and cons depending on the situation. The only reason people perceive them as such is because (as has been mentioned in earlier posts) they are easy to learn and very flexible so unskilled devs often get their hands on them and do terrible, terrible things! When you see what skilled developers can do with these languages you will be amazed at how powerful they really are. Be proud of being a VB dev (hopefully in VB.NET since VB6 is slowly disappearing) and ignore people who knock the language. After all, being a developer has nothing to do with syntax.
rurouniRonin wrote:
Be proud of being a VB dev
lol I'm only a junior and have only been developing for around 8-9 months, i don't believe i'm a fully fledged dev yet and have days where it seems i never will be lol. A very frustrating occupation at times! I've just started to get my head around CSLA which i think is a fairly easy framework to use.
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Some languages are just more resistant to sloppy coding (like where type safety is strictly enforced, etc.) but VB(6) and PHP are by no means weak or bad languages and they each have their pros and cons depending on the situation. The only reason people perceive them as such is because (as has been mentioned in earlier posts) they are easy to learn and very flexible so unskilled devs often get their hands on them and do terrible, terrible things! When you see what skilled developers can do with these languages you will be amazed at how powerful they really are. Be proud of being a VB dev (hopefully in VB.NET since VB6 is slowly disappearing) and ignore people who knock the language. After all, being a developer has nothing to do with syntax.
A skilled developer can work with everything, even good old Commodore BASIC. But he will have to work around the missing concepts, pay more attention not to run into possible issues and generally have to work in a much more disciplined way. Even 30 years ago some people managed to write working programs with the tools available at that time. Indeed I still use my old computers a lot, but for any serious work I want the language, framework and programming environment to assist me as good as possible.
A while ago he asked me what he should have printed on my business cards. I said 'Wizard'. I read books which nobody else understand. Then I do something which nobody understands. After that the computer does something which nobody understands. When asked, I say things about the results which nobody understand. But everybody expects miracles from me on a regular basis. Looks to me like the classical definition of a wizard.
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Hi All, I had to move from .NET to PHP for a bit and now the system am working on is one hell. They have a table with around 47-50 columns. It's not at all normalized and everything is in one table. Now am re-developing registration process and it's a nightmare to update each column. Is it common practice in PHP ? The problem is i know its crap and i still have to work on the existing system. :(
One table? That is not a database that is a spreadsheet
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I'm currently working with a database with 60-odd columns. :wtf: I took a 20-column subset of this table (all I was working with), and normalized it into SEVEN SEPARATE TABLES. Talk about ridiculous. Did I mention this software is the library system at my local highschool, that they pay support for EACH YEAR? Talk about crappy. I only have read-only access too...
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dawmail333 wrote:
Talk about crappy. I only have read-only access too...
hahah that's mad. I was complaining with 47 columns and you are dealing with 60 - oh god. To be honest the task that am doing is only 1 week job in .NET and it has already taken 2.5 weeks and still not finished because first of all i need to understand the logic of the crap code plus then i have to force myself to write crap code..lol..and list goes on.. 3 months and then done with PHP forever.
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dawmail333 wrote:
Talk about crappy. I only have read-only access too...
hahah that's mad. I was complaining with 47 columns and you are dealing with 60 - oh god. To be honest the task that am doing is only 1 week job in .NET and it has already taken 2.5 weeks and still not finished because first of all i need to understand the logic of the crap code plus then i have to force myself to write crap code..lol..and list goes on.. 3 months and then done with PHP forever.
I think I forgot to mention that there are over 200 tables in the database. That + no documentation took a hell of a lot of time to find the relevant info... X|
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I think I forgot to mention that there are over 200 tables in the database. That + no documentation took a hell of a lot of time to find the relevant info... X|
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The best part about that is it is a very common occurrence and always will be ;) Don't worry though, there is almost always gonna be someone else out there dealing with even worse :3 Sometimes the things you see will scare you or otherwise simply shock you but at the end of the day it's part of the job and you will do what you can to make things better. Plus they give us a chance to compare war stories so why not!?! ;)
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One table? That is not a database that is a spreadsheet
Reminds me of a contract I did some years ago. This large facility was monitoring all the utility meters (water, gas, electricity) for the various spaces leased out. The asked me to upgrade it for them, etc. Turns out that they were tracking everything in a single page of a Lotus Symphony spreadsheet. And there was no rhyme or reason to the layout. Blocks of data were in various (unaligned) sections spread out all over the single spreadsheet page. And they all had these circular references within and between each of these blocks. It was like one huge amorphous state machine. And no one there understood anymore what the heck it did. I tried to clean it up. First thing I did was port it to Excel (they were amazed one could do even that), and then started trying to put all these blobs of data into separate spread sheet pages, trying to rationalize what was going on. I had hoped to convert this eventually into a database (one of the requests was to better analyze historical data, which was difficult with various copies of the spreadsheet - one for each months worth of data). Eventually the client dropped the project. They couldn't understand why I was spending all this time on back-end work - they wanted to see the pretty UI stuff first, and couldn't understand that it would be the data that would be driving the UI to a large degree, so it would be important to understand that first. These things happen. Mind you, this was in my early contracting days, and I hadn't learned the skills to keep the customer happy while still trying to produce a useful product for them. Andreas Mertens
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Some languages are just more resistant to sloppy coding (like where type safety is strictly enforced, etc.) but VB(6) and PHP are by no means weak or bad languages and they each have their pros and cons depending on the situation. The only reason people perceive them as such is because (as has been mentioned in earlier posts) they are easy to learn and very flexible so unskilled devs often get their hands on them and do terrible, terrible things! When you see what skilled developers can do with these languages you will be amazed at how powerful they really are. Be proud of being a VB dev (hopefully in VB.NET since VB6 is slowly disappearing) and ignore people who knock the language. After all, being a developer has nothing to do with syntax.
The main problem with php and the reason you see bad database design associated with it is the "ad-hoc" nature of it. You want to do some feature / function no problem just slap it randomly anywhere in the code, and I mean anywhere really annoying in PHP. Oh and just throw something in the database randomly as well to store it. no problem, usually just append a column to the current table. Ok done, you can now store sub category into the database. problem solved. Oh wait sub categories need to be user editable. But only admin, now things start failing cause they just hard coded the values at the time. The database wasn't rationally built to handle it, and now you either rewrite the database breaking code all over or try to dynamically write the list. It's the do it at any time and it works method of PHP that is a problem. I have seen horrors of spagetti code in PHP. At least with .net there is a set struture, and while the developer has many options interfaces, classes, methods, etc its structured to the point I just click goto code and it can find it, and the debugger provides valid information. LOL VB6 is what caused people to dislike VB. A super easy language to learn / use that got the job done. Just not done right, and had no thoughts of being upgradeable / expandable. VB.net is no where the same language as VB6 just got screwed by same "last name" like how your cousin is a redneck, and people wonder if all your family is cause of same last name. Granted seems MS and .net have started to force vb.net out of existance by providing C# with more features and functions. VB.net programming is where I started, and while I have left it for C# I could go back to it and be ok, well I would have to turn off the semi-colon key and forget what brackets mean, but I would survive. Programming is an art, everyone can finger paint (PHP/VB) but not every can oil paint(.net c++, etc). Does that mean someone can't make a perfect piece of art with finger paint? No they can, it just means on average finger painting will look like crap. Same situation with programming.
