What are the worst programming habits?

[PIEBALDconsult]

Eddy Vluggen wrote:

explain a junior ONCE

That's once too many.

You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

[Lost User]

Adding oil to the fire, a practical example;

using System;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Timers;

namespace ConsoleApplication5
{
class Program
{
Timer t = new System.Threading.Timer(null); // will not compile, as it is unclear which Timer
Timer t2 = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer(); // is declared (as opposed to the type instantiated)
Timer pfld_SysTimrTimrt3 = new System.Timers.Timer(); // using hungarian systems with namespace prefix

    static void Main(global::System.String\[\]\[\] strSrgs)
    {
        global::System.Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

}

And yes, the "console application template" has an entry point which is implicitly private.

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

[Lost User]

Dave Kreskowiak wrote:

In C# the default is private while in VB it's Public. I absolutely hate that and really dont want to have to remember what the defaults ars supposed to be when scanning over code for problems.

I hate that it's public in VB.NET too, but it does not change the way I look at C#. Having tried it, for several months, in both languages, to me, the benefit outweighs the possible disadvantage of confusion.

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

[Gary Wheeler]

Hmm. I agree with Joel but I stand by my dislike of the common Hungarian notation, despite Simonyi's original intent.

Software Zen: delete this;

[Lost User]

Comments like this: i=6; //set i to six :)

[Simon_Whale]

My main bug bears are 1. Excessive whitespace between code lines 2. In code comment,for that complex method that are so short they are as useful as the var keyword.

Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians. Help end the violence EAT BACON

[Chris Losinger]

1. incorrect bracket placement 2. if (2 == var) 3. not enough whitespace 4. globals

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[Chris Losinger]

Eddy Vluggen wrote:

there's a keyboard shortcut to automatically reformat in the VS-IDE.

which is a total broken disaster in VS2013 (for C++ at least)

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[David ONeil]

Currently dealing with a codebase that uses magic numbers and tucks them into the window's hMenu member (and uses them from there)! Ghhgh! The other nightmare offense in the code is using "m_" for: a) Some, but not all, member variables. b) Some, but not all, in function variables, including loop indexes. c) Some, but not all, passed function parameters. That was fun to get sorted - NOT. There were even a couple places where the same name was used in two or more different ways, so a project-wide replace would blow up. X| X| X| X| X|

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[Forogar]

It's a pity that we can't use a condensed "new" format like:

CryptographicUnexpectedOperationException exception = new ();

which means the same as:

CryptographicUnexpectedOperationException exception = new CryptographicUnexpectedOperationException();

- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

[Forogar]

I use var when I have some method to call that returns a humungously long-named type. I then immediately change it with the "Make Explicit" option. That way I don't have to type it out in full or select from a potentially huge list of intellisense suggestions.

- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

[OriginalGriff]

Fine by me - it doesn't leave the var in the final code, or treat C# as if it was VB and "don't know, don't care" Dim

Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)

[Jorgen Andersson]

0. Systems hungarian.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello[^]

[Duncan Edwards Jones]

-2. Swallowing an exception -1. Throwing an exception with no message and just the generic "Exception" class. 0. Using try-catch for normal program flow.. (And these are just the rules to the exception :-) )

[Sander Rossel]

Things that bug me... 1. Comments. Too often have I seen comments that made no sense, were outdated, wrong or overly obvious. In fact I've learned to ignore comments as they've never helped me in any way. I guess programmers can't write English... 2. Code that is copy-pasted. Often the cause of bugs. 3. Swallowing exceptions. 4. Non-Object Oriented code in Object Oriented languages. 5. Formatting, you've said it. Bonus: 6. Not using brackets in if statements. Very dangerous... I'm working for a company that has worked with VB since the start. The first employees have worked with VB even longer and used Clipper before that. I've seen 1 through 5 all to often :sigh: I've come to hate 6 when we started doing C# and outsourced a project to another company. HORRIBLE!!! I read the code and didn't know if they meant it that way or if they had introduced subtle bugs... A lot of samples I get from the internet have it too. I probably forgot some stuff, but these are a few of my least-favourite things.

It's an OO world.

public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
{
public void DoWork()
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}

[PIEBALDconsult]

Soooo... the class is private? :confused: How does that work? Even I avoid global:: -- by using an alias if necessary:

using MySqlClient=global::MySql.Data.MySqlClient ;

What the heck is a pfld_ ? A pointer to a fixed long double?

You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

[Lost User]

I like to mark other's code with the unsafe keyword. That's what it is for, after all. Edit: Really bad things: - Stringly typing - Similar to magic numbers: Literal values and strings all over the place instead of enums, resources or similar. - Spaghetti code, or totally insanely structured code - Global variables, including abuse of the session or caches - managing data in dozens of separate variables instead of using even the most primitive kind of entity - not understanding the framework, being unwilling to learn and contaminating the code with flawed homebrew solutions

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I hold an A-7 computer expert classification, Commodore. I'm well acquainted with Dr. Daystrom's theories and discoveries. The basic design of all our ship's computers are JavaScript.

[Pete OHanlon]

Ooh, good thread. Not ones I'm guilty of, but ones I call out in code reviews, that I haven't seen covered elsewhere in this thread: 0. Implementing code that's already part of the framework 1. Explicit path creation (rather than using Path.Combine) 2. Lines that are too long 3. Overly complex lines; these are normally ones that combine numerous statements together using ternary and coalescing null operators (it's a sure sign that someone has Resharper installed). 4. Talking about R#, converting clear code into a muddied part ordinary syntax, part LINQ abomination that you cannot remember what it does so you have to spend 20 minutes figuring out the damn thing. 5. Oh, and while we're at it with LINQ, myList.Where(p=> p.Id == aUniqueId).FirstOrDefault(); This one's a twofer - first of all, if it's a unique number, use SingleOrDefault not FirstOrDefault - you're only getting one value back. Secondly, learn how to use the power of LINQ, that Where statement is redundant so the statement can become myList.SingleOrDefault(p => p.Id == aUniqueId); 6. Not checking inputs into methods for validity. 7. When testing code, not asserting that something has happened. 8. Unnecessary try/catch blocks. 9. Blindly consuming exceptions - I'll have no On Error Resume Next behaviour please. 10. Not checking for null. I once saw a production system go boom because while the main code was properly checking nulls, the code that was reporting out that it couldn't do something because of null values didn't check the value out that it was attempting to log; thus blowing up the system. That's not all, but that should be enough to be getting on with.

[PIEBALDconsult]

CDP1802 wrote:

mark other's code with the unsafe

You might not be surprised to learn that I compile all my code with /unsafe. :cool:

You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.

[Dave Kreskowiak]

What benefit? Saving 4 keystrokes?

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