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From the Museum of Ugly Code

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  • S Stryder_1

    In personal code, I begin my object variable names with obj. This allows all the objects I instantiate to be easily located with autocomplete. Plus when I am scanning through my code, its easily recognized as a variable I created. I usually do not do this in shared code as this is one of those things will annoy some developers.

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    raddevus
    wrote on last edited by
    #9

    Stryder_1 wrote:

    when I am scanning through my code, its easily recognized as a variable I created

    Yeah, I used Hungarian notation in the early days of C++ and no intellisense, etc. It's just that I'm not sure the obj prefix helped in this case (example I provided) because almost everything in that code was an object.

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    • R raddevus

      When you see this, it only takes a few extra seconds to think about what the dev intends. But... X|

      for (;!objSourceSubFolders.atEnd(); objSourceSubFolders.moveNext()) {
      // do something with the files in the folder.
      }

      First of all, not sure why you need to use Hungarian notation to signal that this is an obj. But, more importantly, does the dev not know of the existence of the while loop? Or did he think this was an innovative approach? :sigh: Look how much simpler this is to read.

      while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd()){
      // do something with files in the folder
      sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
      }

      EDIT This one is for all you people. You know who you are! :rolleyes:

      do {
      // do something with files in the folder
      sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
      }
      while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd());

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      Richard Deeming
      wrote on last edited by
      #10

      Is that from a language that hasn't discovered the foreach construct yet? :wtf:


      "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

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      • R raddevus

        When you see this, it only takes a few extra seconds to think about what the dev intends. But... X|

        for (;!objSourceSubFolders.atEnd(); objSourceSubFolders.moveNext()) {
        // do something with the files in the folder.
        }

        First of all, not sure why you need to use Hungarian notation to signal that this is an obj. But, more importantly, does the dev not know of the existence of the while loop? Or did he think this was an innovative approach? :sigh: Look how much simpler this is to read.

        while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd()){
        // do something with files in the folder
        sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
        }

        EDIT This one is for all you people. You know who you are! :rolleyes:

        do {
        // do something with files in the folder
        sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
        }
        while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd());

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        TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
        wrote on last edited by
        #11

        Yeah, I hate Hungarian notation, mostly because everyone, and I do mean everyone, missed the point. Hungarian notation was supposed to indicated the kind of thing it was, not it's type. That is it should say Customers, not objCustList nor objCustDict. Really, you don't need to tell me it's an int or number: nCount or iCount and you don't need to tell me it's an object or a list. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Named properly I can tell what a variable is. As for the looping, personally don't see the problem with either approach. Whatever floats your boat. It's equivalent code. I like the _for_ approach because I can immediately see what the loop dynamics are. The problem there is when, for some logical reason, you don't want to "_moveNext()_," in that case a _while_ statement may serve better.

        #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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        • B BillW33

          The original dev likely thought they were doing cool and advanced stuff with the for statement. This kind of code works, but is the reason that I chose my signature line. ;)

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

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          TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
          wrote on last edited by
          #12

          To borrow from a common aphorism: One man's garbage code is another mans treasure. and here's another: Good code is in the eye of the beholder.

          #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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          • S Stryder_1

            In personal code, I begin my object variable names with obj. This allows all the objects I instantiate to be easily located with autocomplete. Plus when I am scanning through my code, its easily recognized as a variable I created. I usually do not do this in shared code as this is one of those things will annoy some developers.

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            TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
            wrote on last edited by
            #13

            Why not prefix all your variable, function and class names with _stryder__? That way everyone would know! ;P :laugh:

            #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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            • C charlieg

              I second the smart ass approach assessment. Someone is showing off his understanding of default loop behavior, coding bugs at a high rate of speed. I love this: "if (bVariable = someothervar) { do something }" despise assignments in conditionals and that was a simple example.

              Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

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              TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
              wrote on last edited by
              #14

              charlieg wrote:

              "if (bVariable = someothervar)

              I know it's kool and all and allows for compact code, but really this has been the source of so many EFFING bugs, this construct should be disallowed in any language. Curse the inventor of "C" for adding it the language.

              #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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              0
              • C charlieg

                I second the smart ass approach assessment. Someone is showing off his understanding of default loop behavior, coding bugs at a high rate of speed. I love this: "if (bVariable = someothervar) { do something }" despise assignments in conditionals and that was a simple example.

                Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

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                den2k88
                wrote on last edited by
                #15

                charlieg wrote:

                despise assignments in conditionals and that was a simple example.

                Yes yes yes. Also scoped variables are cool but... they still end up on the stack. There is really no need to use them, apart from making the code more difficult to read and to maintain. And: kids, always initialize your variables. If you are absolutely, positively sure that the variable in question will never be read before being written on and that the data written on it are always meaningful then at least state it in a comment.

                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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                • D den2k88

                  charlieg wrote:

                  despise assignments in conditionals and that was a simple example.

                  Yes yes yes. Also scoped variables are cool but... they still end up on the stack. There is really no need to use them, apart from making the code more difficult to read and to maintain. And: kids, always initialize your variables. If you are absolutely, positively sure that the variable in question will never be read before being written on and that the data written on it are always meaningful then at least state it in a comment.

                  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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                  TheGreatAndPowerfulOz
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #16

                  den2k88 wrote:

                  scoped variables ... apart from making the code more difficult to read and to maintain.

                  I actually find using scoped variables makes code easier to read and maintain. :-D YMMV. And it has fixed and avoided many a bug for me.

                  den2k88 wrote:

                  always initialize your variables

                  Indeed. Yes!

                  den2k88 wrote:

                  absolutely, positively sure

                  That works until it doesn't. See first rule: initialize!

                  #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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                  • T TheGreatAndPowerfulOz

                    Yeah, I hate Hungarian notation, mostly because everyone, and I do mean everyone, missed the point. Hungarian notation was supposed to indicated the kind of thing it was, not it's type. That is it should say Customers, not objCustList nor objCustDict. Really, you don't need to tell me it's an int or number: nCount or iCount and you don't need to tell me it's an object or a list. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: Named properly I can tell what a variable is. As for the looping, personally don't see the problem with either approach. Whatever floats your boat. It's equivalent code. I like the _for_ approach because I can immediately see what the loop dynamics are. The problem there is when, for some logical reason, you don't want to "_moveNext()_," in that case a _while_ statement may serve better.

                    #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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                    charlieg
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #17

                    The only hungarian notation I really like is sticking a little "p" in front of a variable to indicate it's a pointer. Just makes it easier to understand what I am doing. Microsoft loves to go wonkers with it (UINT32, and yes I know that's a type), and I have seen some code (due to coding standards) look like pStrConst_Variablename.

                    Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

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                    • C charlieg

                      The only hungarian notation I really like is sticking a little "p" in front of a variable to indicate it's a pointer. Just makes it easier to understand what I am doing. Microsoft loves to go wonkers with it (UINT32, and yes I know that's a type), and I have seen some code (due to coding standards) look like pStrConst_Variablename.

                      Charlie Gilley <italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape... "Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783 “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759

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                      raddevus
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #18

                      Personally my favorite is :

                      LPSTR lpszName // lp = long pointer s = string z = zero (null).
                      // It's a long pointer to a null terminated string, of course.

                      :rolleyes: Thos were the good old days* when there were no Internet to look that stuff up. All you had was The Petzold and windows.h. :) *Not really all that great for learning to program. :)

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                      • T TheGreatAndPowerfulOz

                        den2k88 wrote:

                        scoped variables ... apart from making the code more difficult to read and to maintain.

                        I actually find using scoped variables makes code easier to read and maintain. :-D YMMV. And it has fixed and avoided many a bug for me.

                        den2k88 wrote:

                        always initialize your variables

                        Indeed. Yes!

                        den2k88 wrote:

                        absolutely, positively sure

                        That works until it doesn't. See first rule: initialize!

                        #SupportHeForShe Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun

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                        den2k88
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #19

                        TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:

                        I actually find using scoped variables makes code easier to read and maintain. :-D YMMV. And it has fixed and avoided many a bug for me.

                        If the code is well written, I concur. When they are used in 300-500 lines jack-of-all-trades functions with dozens of scopes inside and badly named variables on the other hand...

                        TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:

                        That works until it doesn't. See first rule: initialize!

                        My experience exactly :D

                        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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                        • R raddevus

                          When you see this, it only takes a few extra seconds to think about what the dev intends. But... X|

                          for (;!objSourceSubFolders.atEnd(); objSourceSubFolders.moveNext()) {
                          // do something with the files in the folder.
                          }

                          First of all, not sure why you need to use Hungarian notation to signal that this is an obj. But, more importantly, does the dev not know of the existence of the while loop? Or did he think this was an innovative approach? :sigh: Look how much simpler this is to read.

                          while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd()){
                          // do something with files in the folder
                          sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
                          }

                          EDIT This one is for all you people. You know who you are! :rolleyes:

                          do {
                          // do something with files in the folder
                          sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
                          }
                          while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd());

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                          M Offline
                          Member 9167057
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #20

                          First time I saw something like thins in a C++ code base, I thought "That's clever!" It was only the second thought that I remembered how much I bloody hate maintaining such "clever" solutions. We coders tend to be attracted to logical puzzles. It takes willpower to steer away from something clever in favor of something simple. Either that or enough experience to know how much of a PITA clever code can be.

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                          • R raddevus

                            charlieg wrote:

                            if (bVariable = someothervar)

                            That's a very ugly one. I had to try it in JS. It works, always runs. C# at least gives you an error "cannot implicitly convert 'int' to 'bool'

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                            boarderstu
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #21

                            That's nothing. I had this once in JS ` if(functionName) //that's a reference, not a call! { //Do something } else { //Some other equally poor code }` It came up at pull request that as it's a function reference, it will always be true, and thus got rejected. Anyway, the bloke went mental, telling me I couldn't reject it as I hadn't run the code to see if it worked.... He started randomly rejecting my pull requests after that.

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                            • D den2k88

                              TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:

                              I actually find using scoped variables makes code easier to read and maintain. :-D YMMV. And it has fixed and avoided many a bug for me.

                              If the code is well written, I concur. When they are used in 300-500 lines jack-of-all-trades functions with dozens of scopes inside and badly named variables on the other hand...

                              TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:

                              That works until it doesn't. See first rule: initialize!

                              My experience exactly :D

                              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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                              boarderstu
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #22

                              Scoped vars make so much sense! They stop shitty devs just using those variables and other functions polluting them

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                              0
                              • B boarderstu

                                That's nothing. I had this once in JS ` if(functionName) //that's a reference, not a call! { //Do something } else { //Some other equally poor code }` It came up at pull request that as it's a function reference, it will always be true, and thus got rejected. Anyway, the bloke went mental, telling me I couldn't reject it as I hadn't run the code to see if it worked.... He started randomly rejecting my pull requests after that.

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                                DerekT P
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #23

                                no, it won't always be true. Consider:

                                var functionName=null;
                                //
                                // ...
                                //
                                if (functionName) {
                                alert('true')
                                } else {
                                alert('false')
                                }

                                functionName = function() {
                                // Some useful stuff
                                }

                                if (functionName) {
                                alert('true')
                                } else {
                                alert('false')
                                }

                                There are plenty of use cases where testing a function for existence is perfectly valid. I guess not in that particular case though.

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                                • 1 11917640 Member

                                  while (!sourceSubFolders.atEnd()){
                                  // do something with files in the folder and don't use "continue"
                                  sourceSubFolders.moveNext();
                                  }

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                                  DerekT P
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #24

                                  Indeed. At least the original structure stopped the developer (and other, later developers) from omitting the first instance; or putting extraneous code after possibly hitting the end. Defensive programming... ;-)

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                                  0
                                  • D DerekT P

                                    no, it won't always be true. Consider:

                                    var functionName=null;
                                    //
                                    // ...
                                    //
                                    if (functionName) {
                                    alert('true')
                                    } else {
                                    alert('false')
                                    }

                                    functionName = function() {
                                    // Some useful stuff
                                    }

                                    if (functionName) {
                                    alert('true')
                                    } else {
                                    alert('false')
                                    }

                                    There are plenty of use cases where testing a function for existence is perfectly valid. I guess not in that particular case though.

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                                    boarderstu
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #25

                                    Fair point! In this case, it was just poor

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                                    • B boarderstu

                                      Scoped vars make so much sense! They stop shitty devs just using those variables and other functions polluting them

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                                      den2k88
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #26

                                      Just how a scoped variable can be polluted by another function? I'm not talking about local variables vs global ones - that would be silly - but of variables declared in nested blocks, as

                                      //code
                                      if (condition){
                                      int xyz;
                                      int abc;
                                      // code
                                      }
                                      // other code

                                      abc and xyz will exist only inside the if block and then disappear again. Is that bad? No, if the code is well written (short clear functions) and those variables are positively needed only in that condition statement. If the code is long and complex jous just end up in a screen of code where there are two "things" named abc and xyz that weren't used anywhere else... it's confusing, to say the least. Also there is no real benefit since all those variables are stack based so no allocation ever takes place - no need to "save those bytes on the stack" or "save the allocation time".

                                      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
                                      • D den2k88

                                        Just how a scoped variable can be polluted by another function? I'm not talking about local variables vs global ones - that would be silly - but of variables declared in nested blocks, as

                                        //code
                                        if (condition){
                                        int xyz;
                                        int abc;
                                        // code
                                        }
                                        // other code

                                        abc and xyz will exist only inside the if block and then disappear again. Is that bad? No, if the code is well written (short clear functions) and those variables are positively needed only in that condition statement. If the code is long and complex jous just end up in a screen of code where there are two "things" named abc and xyz that weren't used anywhere else... it's confusing, to say the least. Also there is no real benefit since all those variables are stack based so no allocation ever takes place - no need to "save those bytes on the stack" or "save the allocation time".

                                        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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                                        boarderstu
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #27

                                        Oh god, yeh that's ugly.

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                                        • B boarderstu

                                          That's nothing. I had this once in JS ` if(functionName) //that's a reference, not a call! { //Do something } else { //Some other equally poor code }` It came up at pull request that as it's a function reference, it will always be true, and thus got rejected. Anyway, the bloke went mental, telling me I couldn't reject it as I hadn't run the code to see if it worked.... He started randomly rejecting my pull requests after that.

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                                          raddevus
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #28

                                          boarderstu wrote:

                                          if(functionName) //that's a reference, not a call!

                                          If (!undefined) { // do some !undefined stuff.} Very ugly. It's almost like a preprocessing directive. #ifndef DEBUG

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