Coding - so what's a crime and whats a misdemeanor?

OriginalGriff

Was just adding something in QA and I thought: there are things no sentient coder should do these days, but every day in QA we see some halfwit doing them. So I figure we need a list of Crimes and Misdemeanors, and these are my first candidates. Misdemeanors are "smack on the head" offenses, Crimes deserve a death sentence! :laugh: Misdemeanors: A) Ignoring existing standards and modifying someone else's code "your way". Crimes: A) Storing passwords in plain text: CommitStrip[^] B) Leaving your code open to SQL Injection: XKCD[^] C) Committing code that doesn't compile. Anyone want to add to these?

Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...

Lost User

Concatenating constant-strings. Swallowing exceptions. Throwing ex; P/Invokes copied from the web when there's a managed alternative. ..would become a long list.

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^][](X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett)

Jorgen Andersson

D) Use GOTO. E) Systems Hungarian But I'd like to add, that you also need to know when to break the rules.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

Pete OHanlon

I'm just waiting for the first person to put "uses JavaScript" or "uses VB".

phil o

D) Storing numbers and datetimes as string in database / counfounding a value with its string representation. E) Not reading the documentation of the objets used in the application. F) Not checking/validating user inputs. G) Copy-pasting a code from anywhere on Internet and expecting it to work without having to think about the requirement ; asking someone else to solve the problem when copied code does not behave the exact desired way (without defining the correct behaviour whatsoever).

I never finish anyth

Lost User

So, when do you use Systems Hungarian? Or worse, Apps Hungarian? :)

Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^][](X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett)

Lost User

Committing commented-out code. I'm not sure whether it's a misdemeanor or crime though.

Jorgen Andersson

I don't.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

Lost User

OriginalGriff wrote:

Crimes: A) Storing passwords in plain text: CommitStrip[^] B) Leaving your code open to SQL Injection: XKCD[^] C) Committing code that doesn't compile.

Crimes Starting Alphabetically 'numbered' lists

Simon_Whale

Code that is complex by how its written rather than by it complexity of the problem

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

Nelek

GOTO can be useful and there are moments where it is needed. Misusing it can result in spagetti code I know but... I would like to see you coding in LAP (PLC) or assembly without JMP instructions...

M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

Rob Philpott

Well according to the BBC, the recent Talk Talk hack was a simple SQL injection. This from an 'internet' company. Talk Talk is criminal, sounds right to me. Committing code that doesn't compile can just be a case of not including a file, so I'd say that was a misdemeanor. TFS will kindly do this for you at its will. Personally I'd say excessive use of design patterns turning the simple into the multifaceted complex is a crime. Any type that has the word 'helper' in its title- Crime. var - Crime Indentation with spaces - Crime More than 1 type per file - Crime Inconsistent naming - Crime

Regards, Rob Philpott.

GuyThiebaut

OriginalGriff wrote:

A) Storing passwords in plain text: CommitStrip[^]

Which is why my password is 08A168B215C2f1 - that way I can store it in a public variable and nobody knows that it's not encrypted ;P ... until now... :sigh:

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

― Christopher Hitchens

GuyThiebaut

Jörgen Andersson wrote:

D) Use GOTO.

so break and return are not to be used?

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

― Christopher Hitchens

jeron1

Eddy Vluggen wrote:

Swallowing exceptions.

:mad::mad::mad: Dealt with that not too long ago, .......wanted.....to....kill......

"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle

ZurdoDev

Eddy Vluggen wrote:

Swallowing exceptions.

Some exceptions are OK to ignore. :^)

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Jorgen Andersson

That's why I added the second sentence.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello

ZurdoDev

harold aptroot wrote:

Committing commented-out code.

That's called good practice. :-\ Actually, there have been times when business requirements went back to what they were before and so uncommenting the code was quite simple. I don't leave commented code in forever though. After a certain amount of time passes, it can go.

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

ZurdoDev

Having multiple return statements in a single function. :thumbsdown:

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Jorgen Andersson

They all become jumps in the end. Breaks, returns and exits have a quite lower probability of becoming pasta.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello