Top 10 Tips to Develop Unmaintainable Code

[Markus Sprunck]

Quote:

Software Engineering Candies[^] This article describes how to write unmaintainable code and have an excellent paid job for the rest of your life. The key skill to unmaintainable code is the obfuscation of the code - besides poor design, no test cases and overly complex algorithms. [...] If you really like to write well maintainable code, feel use this as input for things you shouldn't do in your next project.

This may sound as a pure joke, but it should help to write better code.

[Chris Maunder]

I always prefer to read direct suggestions on how to make something better rather than read one of a million examples on how to make something worse. Stating obvious pitfalls is certainly a good way to create a checklist of things to look out for, especially if they are easy traps to fall into, but I always find I'm left with the "OK, so what's the right way to do this, and when, if ever, is there a reason not to do it the standard way? (ie even the "rules" have their exceptions - and it's these exceptions that show the value of a rule)

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

[Markus Sprunck]

I think you are absolutely right - that it's better to say the correct way of doing things and not to tell anti-pattern and/or wrong solutions. After working more than 20 years in software development it's still mysterious for me, why people don't listen when you tell them the right way. But tell a story in an humorously and/or even ironic way let the people start to listen (in the best case to discuss). This is the goal of this small article. The most important part is:

Share this tutorial with your colleagues and discuss how to improve your current project. A good starting point is static code analysis and unit testing. The best is - to do code reviews within the team to find out what can be improved."

Markus Sprunck