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  4. Let's REALLY make sure "4" isn't "5"

Let's REALLY make sure "4" isn't "5"

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pythoncomlearning
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  • M Marc Clifton

    switch (str)
    {
    case "4":
    if (str != "5") ...

    Ah, the joys of outsourcing with no code reviews.

    Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

    K Offline
    K Offline
    kalberts
    wrote on last edited by
    #15

    I think that if (itIsRainin == true) is just as bad.

    J 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • M Marc Clifton

      gardnerp wrote:

      The naming of str bugs me just as much.

      It had a real name. I sanitized it.

      Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

      K Offline
      K Offline
      kalberts
      wrote on last edited by
      #16

      I was guessing that the programmer had a Fortran background. Fortran has no reserved words (at least it didn't up to F77 - I haven't used more recent versions) so you could define INTEGER to be a REAL variable and COMPLEX to be an INTEGER variable, The result of multiplying INTEGER and COMPLEX could be REAL value stored in the REAL variable REAL. Spaces had no significance, so REALREAL and COMPLEXFUNCTION were perfectly valid variable declarations. (I am really happy that I never had to write a Fortran parser!) When learning Fortran coding at the university, we made up lots of programming exercises for our own fun. One of them was to print out Pascal's triangle using predefined words only, and no literals. Our compiler allowed recursion, which was an extension to Fortran IV, but without it, I doubt that we would have succeeded. The code was completely unreadable. Maybe I should dig it up from the basement and post it here!

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      • M Marc Clifton

        switch (str)
        {
        case "4":
        if (str != "5") ...

        Ah, the joys of outsourcing with no code reviews.

        Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

        B Offline
        B Offline
        Bruce Patin
        wrote on last edited by
        #17

        Just in case!

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • M Marc Clifton

          switch (str)
          {
          case "4":
          if (str != "5") ...

          Ah, the joys of outsourcing with no code reviews.

          Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

          M Offline
          M Offline
          MikeTheFid
          wrote on last edited by
          #18

          Marc Clifton wrote:

          Ah, the joys of outsourcing with no code reviews.

          Combined, perhaps, with last minute changes, or unthinking copy/cut and paste, failing to step-through debug or sheer incompetence, or all of the above. It is smdh funny, though.

          Cheers, Mike Fidler "I intend to live forever - so far, so good." Steven Wright "I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met." Also Steven Wright "I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter." Steven Wright yet again.

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • B BillW33

            "You will save a lot of time only typing 2 or 3 letter variable names instead of those long names. Therefore you will be able to program faster if you keep your variable names short." At a previous job, that is what one of the senior programmers would teach to the new programmers and the boss (who was also a programmer) agreed with him. :wtf: X| There are reasons why I don't work there any longer. ;)

            Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

            F Offline
            F Offline
            F Margueirat
            wrote on last edited by
            #19

            Did the guy knew about IDEs with auto-complete? I understand the point that even if it takes a fraction of a second longer to type a variable name, it will save you several minutes/hours in the future when you or someone else has to maintain that code. But even that fraction of a second disappears with auto-complete.

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            0
            • F F Margueirat

              Did the guy knew about IDEs with auto-complete? I understand the point that even if it takes a fraction of a second longer to type a variable name, it will save you several minutes/hours in the future when you or someone else has to maintain that code. But even that fraction of a second disappears with auto-complete.

              D Offline
              D Offline
              den2k88
              wrote on last edited by
              #20

              Most of these people think that "vim is better" than a proper IDE.

              GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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              0
              • B BillW33

                "You will save a lot of time only typing 2 or 3 letter variable names instead of those long names. Therefore you will be able to program faster if you keep your variable names short." At a previous job, that is what one of the senior programmers would teach to the new programmers and the boss (who was also a programmer) agreed with him. :wtf: X| There are reasons why I don't work there any longer. ;)

                Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

                A Offline
                A Offline
                Alister Morton
                wrote on last edited by
                #21

                I used to work with a guy who typed (mostly) with one finger - if he needed a capital letter he hit caps lock then the letter then caps lock ... This was pre-IDE with completion days. His variable and function names were really terse. When we noticed his coding style, the functions we implemented in our libraries started to "change" so cpos(...) became setVirtualCursorPosition(...) and fg(...) became setForegroundTextColour(...) and so on ;-)

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                • D den2k88

                  It's 3 weeks I am a consultant and I'm seeing sh*t like this way too often. And I am expected to produce the same, since I have to be productive with a 2 weeks training over a medium sized project with no documentation nor coding standard (functions that take 12 arguments named ct, ly, ex, ey, tx, fx and so on...).

                  GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

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

                  Thanks. I'm now having flashbacks to GW-BASIC.

                  If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

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                  0
                  • B BillW33

                    "You will save a lot of time only typing 2 or 3 letter variable names instead of those long names. Therefore you will be able to program faster if you keep your variable names short." At a previous job, that is what one of the senior programmers would teach to the new programmers and the boss (who was also a programmer) agreed with him. :wtf: X| There are reasons why I don't work there any longer. ;)

                    Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

                    W Offline
                    W Offline
                    W Balboos GHB
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #23

                    Not disagreeing with the idea that a symbol's name should tell you a bit about it (if possible), but I have worked with someone who who's symbol and function names were pretty near essays. It takes a bit of common sense - and making distinguishing them a non-painful eye exercise. Why not loop with i, j, etc., as counters? Why not use IPAddr instead of ipa (slurp!)? Always just common sense to make readable and to avoid mistakes. It shouldn't be hard.

                    Ravings en masse^

                    "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                    "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

                    R 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • M Marc Clifton

                      switch (str)
                      {
                      case "4":
                      if (str != "5") ...

                      Ah, the joys of outsourcing with no code reviews.

                      Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

                      W Offline
                      W Offline
                      W Balboos GHB
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #24

                      Better said - better done[^]

                      Ravings en masse^

                      "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                      "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • T TNCaver

                        Thanks. I'm now having flashbacks to GW-BASIC.

                        If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

                        D Offline
                        D Offline
                        den2k88
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #25

                        You tell me... this code sucks so much I wrote several VB6 lines inside C++, not kidding!

                        GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • W W Balboos GHB

                          Not disagreeing with the idea that a symbol's name should tell you a bit about it (if possible), but I have worked with someone who who's symbol and function names were pretty near essays. It takes a bit of common sense - and making distinguishing them a non-painful eye exercise. Why not loop with i, j, etc., as counters? Why not use IPAddr instead of ipa (slurp!)? Always just common sense to make readable and to avoid mistakes. It shouldn't be hard.

                          Ravings en masse^

                          "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                          "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

                          R Offline
                          R Offline
                          Rick York
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #26

                          There were people here who would call that variable ip. It drove me crazy until I eradicated all traces of that nonsense.

                          J 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • G gardnerp

                            The naming of str bugs me just as much. Ok, I know it's a string. But what is it? Calling it something like invoiceTypeCode indicates it is a string and lets me know what I am looking at.

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                            C Offline
                            CHill60
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #27

                            I recently inherited a load of "code" (it's VBA so I don't want to it ideas above its station :laugh: ) ... during the "handover" (apparently that's what it was) the original "programmer" explained with great pride, that they didn't

                            Quote:

                            waste their time using long variable names...

                            Yep! Every single one of them was a single character. Every. Single. One. :mad: (Except where he copied code snippets off the internet)

                            Z 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • M Marc Clifton

                              switch (str)
                              {
                              case "4":
                              if (str != "5") ...

                              Ah, the joys of outsourcing with no code reviews.

                              Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              raddevus
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #28

                              That is one sick puppy. The person should be found, bound and brought out for public humiliation immediately. We had something like the following in legacy code:

                              for (x = 0; x <= 20;x++){
                              unknownVariable = x;
                              }
                              unknownVariable = 55;

                              X| That brings up so many questions. Was the dev trying to slow something down? What is unknownVariable? Why did dev set it to the specific value of 55? arghgghgghg!!!!

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • D den2k88

                                It's 3 weeks I am a consultant and I'm seeing sh*t like this way too often. And I am expected to produce the same, since I have to be productive with a 2 weeks training over a medium sized project with no documentation nor coding standard (functions that take 12 arguments named ct, ly, ex, ey, tx, fx and so on...).

                                GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

                                J Offline
                                J Offline
                                James Lonero
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #29

                                Sounds like a bunch of college students to me. They need refinement. But, you get what you pay for.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • D den2k88

                                  Most of these people think that "vim is better" than a proper IDE.

                                  GCS d-- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- ++>+++ y+++*      Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

                                  J Offline
                                  J Offline
                                  James Lonero
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #30

                                  For voice in mind?

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • R Rick York

                                    There were people here who would call that variable ip. It drove me crazy until I eradicated all traces of that nonsense.

                                    J Offline
                                    J Offline
                                    James Lonero
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #31

                                    You must be the boss.

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • K kalberts

                                      I think that if (itIsRainin == true) is just as bad.

                                      J Offline
                                      J Offline
                                      James Lonero
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #32

                                      Unless you're in California. WE WANT RAIN!

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • T TNCaver

                                        Thanks. I'm now having flashbacks to GW-BASIC.

                                        If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.

                                        J Offline
                                        J Offline
                                        James Lonero
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #33

                                        Reminds me of my first foray into Fortran IV. Then, we used computer cards. We were only allowed six characters for variable names. Then, it was all in CAPS.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • B BillW33

                                          "You will save a lot of time only typing 2 or 3 letter variable names instead of those long names. Therefore you will be able to program faster if you keep your variable names short." At a previous job, that is what one of the senior programmers would teach to the new programmers and the boss (who was also a programmer) agreed with him. :wtf: X| There are reasons why I don't work there any longer. ;)

                                          Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

                                          M Offline
                                          M Offline
                                          Marc Clifton
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #34

                                          BillW33 wrote:

                                          You will save a lot of time only typing 2 or 3 letter variable names instead of those long names.

                                          And here I thought if you use shorter variable names, the program runs faster! :-D

                                          Latest Article - A Concise Overview of Threads Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802

                                          1 Reply Last reply
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