Is there anything scarier than one's own code?
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I was asked to make a minor update to an accounting application that I wrote last year. I jumped in and began poking around and noticed a really stupid addition error. The error, in short, was including items in the total that the user indicated were not to be included in the total. It's one of those errors that feels a great deal like what it must feel like to have one's pants suddenly go missing in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. I stood up at my desk and looked around - nobody seems to have caught on to this incredibly goofy thing I'd done. I'm calmly typing at my computer right now while screaming in my head. Nothing to see here. Just a normal day at work. *omg...I gotta fix this NOW* How about that weather? *how did I .... what was I thinking here* Yeah, the royal wedding was something - talk about it but don't look at my screen. *I need to get this update out ASAP* What? This update? Oh, just some query optimizations... I think I'll quietly fix the problem, submit my resignation, and get a job washing dishes somewhere. I need a job with less "exposure". Publishing the update now...
Yeah other peoples code that: - isn't indented correctly - happily deletes local arrays - returns pointers to local variables - fails to work - and are too dumb to realize how dumb they are.
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I was asked to make a minor update to an accounting application that I wrote last year. I jumped in and began poking around and noticed a really stupid addition error. The error, in short, was including items in the total that the user indicated were not to be included in the total. It's one of those errors that feels a great deal like what it must feel like to have one's pants suddenly go missing in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. I stood up at my desk and looked around - nobody seems to have caught on to this incredibly goofy thing I'd done. I'm calmly typing at my computer right now while screaming in my head. Nothing to see here. Just a normal day at work. *omg...I gotta fix this NOW* How about that weather? *how did I .... what was I thinking here* Yeah, the royal wedding was something - talk about it but don't look at my screen. *I need to get this update out ASAP* What? This update? Oh, just some query optimizations... I think I'll quietly fix the problem, submit my resignation, and get a job washing dishes somewhere. I need a job with less "exposure". Publishing the update now...
Actually it’s more along the lines of bizarre! I have gone back and opened code that I have done and began to read it and thought, WOW who did this, this is very cool! Having no recall of ever doing it. Must have been in the Zone for sure!
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The worst code you'll come across is code you wrote last year.
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. " — Hunter S. Thompson
If that isn't true, then you haven't learned anything in a year.
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I was asked to make a minor update to an accounting application that I wrote last year. I jumped in and began poking around and noticed a really stupid addition error. The error, in short, was including items in the total that the user indicated were not to be included in the total. It's one of those errors that feels a great deal like what it must feel like to have one's pants suddenly go missing in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. I stood up at my desk and looked around - nobody seems to have caught on to this incredibly goofy thing I'd done. I'm calmly typing at my computer right now while screaming in my head. Nothing to see here. Just a normal day at work. *omg...I gotta fix this NOW* How about that weather? *how did I .... what was I thinking here* Yeah, the royal wedding was something - talk about it but don't look at my screen. *I need to get this update out ASAP* What? This update? Oh, just some query optimizations... I think I'll quietly fix the problem, submit my resignation, and get a job washing dishes somewhere. I need a job with less "exposure". Publishing the update now...
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Of course there is... Imagine that your boss comes and ask you to do that minor update in a code that one coworker that is already not working in the company did one year ago... X| Apart of that, don't worry, there would be tons of IT people washing dishes out there if that would be the penitence for making programming errors... They somehow disappear... :~ Good luck with the update! and have a nice weekend...
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
What's scary about that? Code that does nothing... I just swear at the @#$@$ developer who isn't around. Code that doesn't make sense... I just worry about sanity - mine or the developer's. Code that's wrong... Well, everyone is human. Code that could be written more effieciently in 10 times fewer lines... Is it worth going through code review and worrying about bean counters finding out you are producing negitive line counts in coding? Finding out you are human and not a DEMI-GOD... Now that is scary.
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I was just sucked into a project vortex where our current team didn't write any of the code and that utilizes the following "technologies": - asp.net 2.0 (vb.net) - sql server 2005 - legacy asp (using vbscript) - javascript - jquery - ajax - access - excel - remote databases designed and (preumably) maintained by someone else - a desktop application (in VB6) - enterprise library We added a silverlight module and companion web service that we wrote, but this is the only part of the whole thing that is even partially documented or that has comments in the code. For everything EXCEPT the Silverlight stuff, there is no documentation - of any kind. We inherited the support side, and we immediately discovered problems that the users never said anything about, nor cared about until we found them and started responding to "upgrade" requests with reasons something couldn't be done. We're hoping for a chance to rewrite the entire system from scratch, but real life experience dictates that we'll never have the opportunity, or if it's presented to us, we won't be given the time to properly design, implement and test the system. Add to that the "personal agenda" aspect associated with a high turnover rate at all levels of management, and you can see that we're in an impossible situation that can only be solved if everybody just leaves us the hell alone and lets us cruise pron sites. So yes, there actually *is* something scarier than your own source code.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997modified on Friday, April 29, 2011 11:48 AM
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
So yes, there actually *is* something scarier than your own source code.
You nailed it. (At least for me.) Being in that situation would be much scarier for me than finding out I am only human. (I found that out much too long ago.)
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Yeah other peoples code that: - isn't indented correctly - happily deletes local arrays - returns pointers to local variables - fails to work - and are too dumb to realize how dumb they are.
I don't think so. Every one of those mistakes can be ascribed to the idiot who doesn't know how to code. If you have been around long enough, you realize you are surrounded by idiots, so you will always find mistakes in code. I think that finding out that you are one of the idiots is one of the bigger breakthroughs you will have to go through in your programming life. John Simmons did nail it in an earlier post. Being completely responsible for a big undocumented system written by someone else who doesn't believe in comments is scarier.
sashan govender wrote:
returns pointers to local variables
That must be a C++ thing? My memory of C++ is dim, but I do remember it having two symbol prefixes to pass an address location two different ways, which seemed kind of an assinine way to handle it. (Can you really blame me? I'm self-taught, with only Microsoft Documentation to help me.) VB.NET is another self-taught language. I thought it was kind of dumb that you could pass a "by value" reference object, now I'm kind of wondering if you pass a "by reference" object that is assigned new memory, would the passed object inherit the new memory location?
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What's scary about that? Code that does nothing... I just swear at the @#$@$ developer who isn't around. Code that doesn't make sense... I just worry about sanity - mine or the developer's. Code that's wrong... Well, everyone is human. Code that could be written more effieciently in 10 times fewer lines... Is it worth going through code review and worrying about bean counters finding out you are producing negitive line counts in coding? Finding out you are human and not a DEMI-GOD... Now that is scary.
Erm... Are you ok? :rolleyes:
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Of course there is... Imagine that your boss comes and ask you to do that minor update in a code that one coworker that is already not working in the company did one year ago... X| Apart of that, don't worry, there would be tons of IT people washing dishes out there if that would be the penitence for making programming errors... They somehow disappear... :~ Good luck with the update! and have a nice weekend...
[www.tamelectromecanica.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Joan Murt wrote:
Imagine that your boss comes and ask you to do that minor update in a code that one coworker that is already not working in the company did
...years ago with technology which has never been your first choice or strong side. And with virtually no documentation! That's unnerving! :~ X| :confused:
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Yeah other peoples code that: - isn't indented correctly - happily deletes local arrays - returns pointers to local variables - fails to work - and are too dumb to realize how dumb they are.
sashan govender wrote:
- and are too dumb to realize how dumb they are.
true and sad.
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The worst code you'll come across is code you wrote last year.
"I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. " — Hunter S. Thompson
