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  3. The continuing saga of bad code [modified]

The continuing saga of bad code [modified]

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  • R realJSOP

    I think those same people wrote the web site I'm working on now. I have a single method that's over 700 lines long in a 4500-line file. For the record, you are not properly highlighting your use of "gotten". It has to be bold/italic/big to ensure that Chris notices its use.

    ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
    -----
    You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
    -----
    "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, 1997

    N Offline
    N Offline
    Not Active
    wrote on last edited by
    #6

    Corrected :-D


    I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • C Chris Maunder

      I notice. I notice them all. :sigh:

      cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP

      N Offline
      N Offline
      Not Active
      wrote on last edited by
      #7

      Chris Maunder wrote:

      I notice them all.

      Didn't realize CP was affiliated with News Corp


      I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

      N 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • N Not Active

        OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


        I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

        modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

        N Offline
        N Offline
        Nish Nishant
        wrote on last edited by
        #8

        Why don't you change jobs/contracts then? :confused:

        Regards, Nish


        Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

        N 1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • N Not Active

          OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


          I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

          modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

          J Offline
          J Offline
          Jeremy Hutchinson
          wrote on last edited by
          #9

          Mark Nischalke wrote:

          Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB.

          If MS did away with VB those coders would code crap in C#, and then you would have no warning that it was going to be poorly written code. The way it is now, if you're called in on a VB project you can be fairly certain you are going to see horrors beyond comprehension. With C# you can expect it to be decent. There are exceptions in both languages of course, but by there definition exceptions are rare...

          B A J R J 5 Replies Last reply
          0
          • N Not Active

            Chris Maunder wrote:

            I notice them all.

            Didn't realize CP was affiliated with News Corp


            I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

            N Offline
            N Offline
            Nish Nishant
            wrote on last edited by
            #10

            Mark Nischalke wrote:

            Didn't realize CP was affiliated with News Corp

            :laugh:

            Regards, Nish


            Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

            B 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • N Nish Nishant

              Why don't you change jobs/contracts then? :confused:

              Regards, Nish


              Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

              N Offline
              N Offline
              Not Active
              wrote on last edited by
              #11

              Would be nice if I were financially independent and could pick and choose the contracts, or just quit after starting and seeing the mess.


              I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

              N C 2 Replies Last reply
              0
              • N Not Active

                OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


                I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

                modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

                K Offline
                K Offline
                Keith Barrow
                wrote on last edited by
                #12

                I feel your pain, this sounds exactly like our code base[^] (see also "why our Code Base Sucks Today II"). I inherited not only the situation you describe, but we also code against live. One dev hasn't been able touse a debugger, so he'd write the code and test on live site to see if breaks, really good fun on the main master page. This was the practise until I last week when I locked the devs out and put some change management in place. A re-write is going to happen, I've got the projects (literally just sub-folders on live) I want to keep into real solutions and into TFS (with deployment CI & builds none the less) and have started a prototype MVC3 app to replace the current cow-excrement heap. Oh the site is Arabic/English (almost, people are just plain lazy so we see a bit of both in each). We did have the situation where we had one panel displaying English text and another with Arabic (to sites in effect). I managed to convice them to put a stop-gap measure in :

                <%= pageLang =="en"? "Events Calendar":"تقويم الأحداث" %>

                before I took over. Even here, instead of creating a base-class with an IsArabic property or something, they team decided comparing a parameter against a magic string, for each bit of text in the aspx was a good idea (as copy and paste is faster from my example scratch code). Its not worth fixing, in the new version we're switching to resx files. At least 95% of it is in c#* ;P** *Sadly not good c#. Yet **Actually bad code is bad code, doesn't matter what language it is in

                Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                -Or-
                A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • N Not Active

                  Would be nice if I were financially independent and could pick and choose the contracts, or just quit after starting and seeing the mess.


                  I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

                  N Offline
                  N Offline
                  Nish Nishant
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #13

                  Mark Nischalke wrote:

                  Would be nice if I were financially independent and could pick and choose the contracts, or just quit after starting and seeing the mess.

                  In other words it's this mess that keeps you employed. So be happy for it :-)

                  Regards, Nish


                  Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • R realJSOP

                    Just come over to the dark side, Chris. It won't hurt a bit. I promise.

                    ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                    -----
                    You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                    -----
                    "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, 1997

                    K Offline
                    K Offline
                    Keith Barrow
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #14

                    God, that is all kinds of creepy, I'd rather join a cult :)

                    Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                    -Or-
                    A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • N Not Active

                      OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


                      I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

                      modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

                      G Offline
                      G Offline
                      gavindon
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #15

                      Mark Nischalke wrote:

                      400 lines in one page load event alone

                      The project I inherited had one page with over 2000 lines of code in the page load event....on a page with around 6k lines.

                      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. Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

                      K 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • G gavindon

                        Mark Nischalke wrote:

                        400 lines in one page load event alone

                        The project I inherited had one page with over 2000 lines of code in the page load event....on a page with around 6k lines.

                        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. Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

                        K Offline
                        K Offline
                        Keith Barrow
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #16

                        :omg: :wtf:

                        Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                        -Or-
                        A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                        G 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • K Keith Barrow

                          :omg: :wtf:

                          Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                          -Or-
                          A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                          G Offline
                          G Offline
                          gavindon
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #17

                          They want me to fix the issues this thing has, I told them I will fix the issues by scrapping the damn thing and rebuilding from ground up....It's such a Frankenstein monster that I am loath to simply do yet more patching and duct taping on it. Its basically the company intranet application, built by a self taught programmer over about 4 years time(constantly adding and patching stuff in). So its horrendous. I'm going to go with the basic user design and whatnot but am going to redesign the whole damn thing from the ground up with all its current functionality taken into account from the start, rather than patch in more crap code.(instead it will be a whole new generation of crap code, but it will be crap code that I wrote so I will know how to use it..... :-D ).

                          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. Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

                          K 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • G gavindon

                            They want me to fix the issues this thing has, I told them I will fix the issues by scrapping the damn thing and rebuilding from ground up....It's such a Frankenstein monster that I am loath to simply do yet more patching and duct taping on it. Its basically the company intranet application, built by a self taught programmer over about 4 years time(constantly adding and patching stuff in). So its horrendous. I'm going to go with the basic user design and whatnot but am going to redesign the whole damn thing from the ground up with all its current functionality taken into account from the start, rather than patch in more crap code.(instead it will be a whole new generation of crap code, but it will be crap code that I wrote so I will know how to use it..... :-D ).

                            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. Be careful which toes you step on today, they might be connected to the foot that kicks your butt tomorrow. You can't scare me, I have children.

                            K Offline
                            K Offline
                            Keith Barrow
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #18

                            I'm in pretty much the same situation, but most of the site Internet rather than intranet. I can understand this happening where I am, developers aren't seen as being professionals here, the equivalent of digital labourers. Most of the good devs end up in the gulf where they pay properly, which just makes the problem worse.

                            Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                            -Or-
                            A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • N Not Active

                              OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


                              I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

                              modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

                              F Offline
                              F Offline
                              Flynn Arrowstarr Regular Schmoe
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #19

                              Gah! I'd still be stuck on the "no dev database" issue. Even when we were a VB shop we had test databases. Of course, some of the applications had very large methods for things. Reminded me of some of the COBOL programs my mates from college wrote for class... *shudder* Flynn

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • N Nish Nishant

                                Mark Nischalke wrote:

                                Didn't realize CP was affiliated with News Corp

                                :laugh:

                                Regards, Nish


                                Are you addicted to CP? If so, check this out: The Code Project Forum Analyzer : Find out how much of a life you don't have! My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

                                B Offline
                                B Offline
                                boarderstu
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #20

                                Better News Corp, than News International ;)

                                B 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • J Jeremy Hutchinson

                                  Mark Nischalke wrote:

                                  Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB.

                                  If MS did away with VB those coders would code crap in C#, and then you would have no warning that it was going to be poorly written code. The way it is now, if you're called in on a VB project you can be fairly certain you are going to see horrors beyond comprehension. With C# you can expect it to be decent. There are exceptions in both languages of course, but by there definition exceptions are rare...

                                  B Offline
                                  B Offline
                                  boarderstu
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #21

                                  I disagree - I've got that crap in C# code..

                                  J T D 3 Replies Last reply
                                  0
                                  • N Not Active

                                    OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


                                    I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

                                    modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

                                    T Offline
                                    T Offline
                                    troga
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #22

                                    I´m currently debugging a peace of code that´s 12783 lines in one File/Class ... the problematic method is about 1100 lines of code long... I guess the old C times are back again. Anyway thats´s also a way to write bad C# code.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • R realJSOP

                                      Just come over to the dark side, Chris. It won't hurt a bit. I promise.

                                      ".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
                                      -----
                                      You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
                                      -----
                                      "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, 1997

                                      G Offline
                                      G Offline
                                      Gary Wheeler
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #23

                                      John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

                                      It won't hurt a bit. I promise.

                                      Said the proctologist to the patient. :laugh:

                                      Software Zen: delete this;

                                      B 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • N Not Active

                                        OK, so I've gotten past the no source control and no dev database. Now to build the site and step through it...no so fast. VS reports so many errors it stops recording them. When asked, the response was, "We've never built the site". :wtf: How do you use it then? "We deploy it and let it compile on the server when someone hits it the first time". :wtf: Did I mention the huge monolithic classes, 400 lines in one page load event alone, no layers, hard coded business logic. Not to get into the religious debate about languages but everytime I run into VB projects this is the quality I find. Software development would be so much better if Microsoft would just discontinue VB. :-D


                                        I know the language. I've read a book. - _Madmatt

                                        modified on Wednesday, July 20, 2011 8:49 AM

                                        S Offline
                                        S Offline
                                        Spectre_001
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #24

                                        It's not the language - it's the caliber of developer. I've seen some C# and C++ projects that would rival if not surpass the code you've described for it's shameless depths of bad practices/code/formatting/architecture/etc. I've also seen some very good work done in VB (not to try to say that I haven't seen some comparably bad VB - but I haven't noticed an inordinate disparity in the amount of bad code I encounter as related to the programming language).

                                        Kevin Rucker, Application Programmer QSS Group, Inc. United States Coast Guard OSC Kevin.D.Rucker@uscg.mil "Programming is an art form that fights back." -- Chad Hower

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • B boarderstu

                                          I disagree - I've got that crap in C# code..

                                          J Offline
                                          J Offline
                                          Jeremy Hutchinson
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #25

                                          boarderstu wrote:

                                          I disagree - I've got that crap in C# code..

                                          Right, the exception that proves the rule. <- how is that even a saying, it really doesn't make sense if you think about it so I'm going to stop thinking about it.

                                          P 1 Reply Last reply
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