WHEW! !
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Ok, as many of you know I'm very new to this new career and am working at my first good job doing it. I have been working on an update to existing applications that were written by a self taught programmer. Now he wasn't bad but there are some issues with his style of coding that Ive had to work through. Add to that, he is no longer here or available. there are about 5 comments in 40,000 lines of code, and he seemed to like obscure names for variables, functions and whatnot. Its an ASP.net app that is full of javascript for things that could have been handled perfectly fine with c#'s built in items, and on the list goes. As you can imagine, its been a tad bit of a headache figuring out what he intended with any particular piece of code. My first major update went live and so far.. seems to be working as intended and did not break anything else. WHEW! ! looks like I get to keep my job for a bit longer yet :-D Not to mention it makes me feel a bit more like a real programmer to have successfully completed this update. Now on to the next one ! ! ! !
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
gavindon wrote:
there are about 5 comments in 40,000 lines of code, and he seemed to like obscure names for variables, functions and whatnot
Job Security.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
gavindon wrote:
there are about 5 comments in 40,000 lines of code, and he seemed to like obscure names for variables, functions and whatnot
Job Security.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]:laugh: :thumbsup:
-- ** You don't hire a handyman to build a house, you hire a carpenter. ** Jack of all trades and master of none.
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gavindon wrote:
there are about 5 comments in 40,000 lines of code, and he seemed to like obscure names for variables, functions and whatnot
Job Security.
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]good point, but that only holds so far as I can keep unraveling this spaghetti logic. Functions repeated well, repeatedly, instead of creating an overloaded function and just calling it when needed, he rewrote the same function 15 times(in the same class/page code behind). But only two versions of it.... this was done with multiple functions, over and over and over.... and a couple of them are long as hell... lol
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
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gavindon wrote:
seems to be working as intended and did not break anything else.
First timer's luck. Wait till you get more experienced...you'll be fucking everything up...trust me. ;)
-- ** You don't hire a handyman to build a house, you hire a carpenter. ** Jack of all trades and master of none.
The job progression: New programmer: Takes it safe, but still goes through code, trying to understand it and even making some minor optimizations, argues that much of code should be refactored. Takes months. Experienced programmer: Rewrites everything. Extends schedule rediculously. Users complain that software doesn't work the way it used to. Takes years. Truly senior programmer: Fixes the specific bug, leaves the rest of the crap alone, including the horrible formatting, bad variable names and no comments, doesn't care how it works. Takes minutes.
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The job progression: New programmer: Takes it safe, but still goes through code, trying to understand it and even making some minor optimizations, argues that much of code should be refactored. Takes months. Experienced programmer: Rewrites everything. Extends schedule rediculously. Users complain that software doesn't work the way it used to. Takes years. Truly senior programmer: Fixes the specific bug, leaves the rest of the crap alone, including the horrible formatting, bad variable names and no comments, doesn't care how it works. Takes minutes.
well I'm not senior but I already planned on the third route , fix the bugs and roll on. But it does take more than minutes for my newbie brain to unravel all this crap... but I will simply fix things as they come up, and try to keep to better practices when I write new additions to the project. having said that, where do you draw the line at rebuilding something vs try to patch in new code in with the old spaghetti? That's part of my issues. I see a better(and much simpler) way to do some things, but to do that I would have to do some major gutting back down the line. But simply tying in some new code to that crap is almost as bad... :sigh: Guess I will take it aline of code at a time and just do what seems best at the moment depending on deadline for new items vs amount of rework etc..
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
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The job progression: New programmer: Takes it safe, but still goes through code, trying to understand it and even making some minor optimizations, argues that much of code should be refactored. Takes months. Experienced programmer: Rewrites everything. Extends schedule rediculously. Users complain that software doesn't work the way it used to. Takes years. Truly senior programmer: Fixes the specific bug, leaves the rest of the crap alone, including the horrible formatting, bad variable names and no comments, doesn't care how it works. Takes minutes.
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good point, but that only holds so far as I can keep unraveling this spaghetti logic. Functions repeated well, repeatedly, instead of creating an overloaded function and just calling it when needed, he rewrote the same function 15 times(in the same class/page code behind). But only two versions of it.... this was done with multiple functions, over and over and over.... and a couple of them are long as hell... lol
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
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lol didn't work then, hes long gone, hence why I'm now here trying to read his mind.
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
-
Ok, as many of you know I'm very new to this new career and am working at my first good job doing it. I have been working on an update to existing applications that were written by a self taught programmer. Now he wasn't bad but there are some issues with his style of coding that Ive had to work through. Add to that, he is no longer here or available. there are about 5 comments in 40,000 lines of code, and he seemed to like obscure names for variables, functions and whatnot. Its an ASP.net app that is full of javascript for things that could have been handled perfectly fine with c#'s built in items, and on the list goes. As you can imagine, its been a tad bit of a headache figuring out what he intended with any particular piece of code. My first major update went live and so far.. seems to be working as intended and did not break anything else. WHEW! ! looks like I get to keep my job for a bit longer yet :-D Not to mention it makes me feel a bit more like a real programmer to have successfully completed this update. Now on to the next one ! ! ! !
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
gavindon wrote:
did not break anything
If it does break, it was design flaw that needed fixing annyway. Good job! Now the honeymoon is over.:)
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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well I'm not senior but I already planned on the third route , fix the bugs and roll on. But it does take more than minutes for my newbie brain to unravel all this crap... but I will simply fix things as they come up, and try to keep to better practices when I write new additions to the project. having said that, where do you draw the line at rebuilding something vs try to patch in new code in with the old spaghetti? That's part of my issues. I see a better(and much simpler) way to do some things, but to do that I would have to do some major gutting back down the line. But simply tying in some new code to that crap is almost as bad... :sigh: Guess I will take it aline of code at a time and just do what seems best at the moment depending on deadline for new items vs amount of rework etc..
Programming is a race between programmers trying to build bigger and better idiot proof programs, and the universe trying to build bigger and better idiots, so far... the universe is winning.
When the aggregate amount of time needed to implement all the of patches you need to make to part of the mess approaches the amount of time needed to rewrite the section from scratch. Alternately when the mess becomes a performance bottleneck that can be fixed with a rewrite.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18