The Weird and The Wonderful

The Weird and The Wonderful forum is a place to post Coding Horrors, Worst Practices, and the occasional flash of brilliance.

We all come across code that simply boggles the mind. Lazy kludges, embarrassing mistakes, horrid workarounds and developers just not quite getting it. And then somedays we come across - or write - the truly sublime.

Post your Best, your worst, and your most interesting. But please - no programming questions . This forum is purely for amusement and discussions on code snippets. All actual programming questions will be removed.

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

Caslen29-Jul-11 0:09

Caslen

29-Jul-11 0:09

To be fair I changed the variables names myself (to protect the guilty). Capitalising variable names is something I've always done, 20 years or more, it's a hard habit to break - old dog and new tricks if you know what I mean Smile | :)

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

StM0n28-Jul-11 20:40

StM0n

28-Jul-11 20:40

Never seen something like that... but it's kind of... attractive... in a way... strange way... forbidden way... Blush | :O

(yes|no|maybe)*

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

Caslen29-Jul-11 0:10

Caslen

29-Jul-11 0:10

You must resist - its a sure path to the dark side...

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

StM0n29-Jul-11 0:32

StM0n

29-Jul-11 0:32

... I can't... have to write... strange code... oops, no it's been

while

(yes|no|maybe)*

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

Caslen29-Jul-11 0:49

Caslen

29-Jul-11 0:49

C++

for(;1==1;i++){if(!i)goto End;}
End:

Still tempted? Smile | :)

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

StM0n29-Jul-11 0:55

StM0n

29-Jul-11 0:55

done it, until it feels false Big Grin | :-D

(yes|no|maybe)*

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

BobJanova29-Jul-11 5:43

BobJanova

29-Jul-11 5:43

Hard to tell given the level of anonymisation you've done. If it's a hard problem then such a complex test might be appropriate. I'd probably write it as a while loop, since the 'incrementer' is a different variable.

I do agree though that the 'Real WTF' is the 700 lines inside a loop construct.

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

richard_k3-Aug-11 16:53

richard_k

3-Aug-11 16:53

Ok.. so far I can buy smart.. although I'm not fond of HOW the code is formatted.. I try to format more complex if statements so that its obvious what is going on.. ergo:

for (                           ; 
           (Var1 < Var2) 
        && (Var3 == FALSE) 
        && (    ( Var4 < 0 ) 
             || (Var5 <= Var6) ); 
     Var7++)
{
   .
   .
   //700 lines of code
   .
   .
}

I used to do PLC programming and loved how ladder logic read.. so this is a hold over from those days for me.. I'm ALL about readability..

On 700 lines.. idiot for sure.

Now.. my question to determine if this guys is a TRUE idiot.. does he re-use any of those test variables for other purposes in his massive 700 line pile of spaghetti? If so.. then he gets promoted to 'Principle Idiot'.

The reason I ask this is.. I've seen that.. a 3000 line function that re-used control and locally declared variables for complete different purposes.. trying to debug that mess was like messing with a wierd 3-dimensional puzzle. The guy that wrote it, god bless his soul, at least wasn't a CS guy.. he was a business analyst. Give a child a pistol....

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

Caslen5-Aug-11 2:09

Caslen

5-Aug-11 2:09

Var1 - 17 references
Var2 - 5 references
Var3 - 14 references...

...and so on - believe me its spaghetti!

Re: Clever Coder or Annoying SmartAss?

thoiness1-Sep-11 5:09

thoiness

1-Sep-11 5:09

That's downright amazing. I don't think I would have ever thought of that. It really makes you wonder, who does think like that? Was the author an expert in regex per chance?

Comma operator considered harmful

o m n i27-Jul-11 12:42

o m n i

27-Jul-11 12:42

From a console tic-tac-toe game: (drawing function)

for (int x = 0, y = 0; y < 3; y+=((x==2)?1:0),x+=((x==2)?-2:1) ) {
     cout << boardStrings[board[x][y]] << ((x == 2) ? "\n" : "");
}

Re: Comma operator considered harmful

Al_Brown27-Jul-11 22:06

Al_Brown

27-Jul-11 22:06

I hate to say it, but I quite like that code. With a couple of named constants instead of the use of literals 2 and 3 and more consistant spacing it would be nice and succinct.

Re: Comma operator considered harmful

oggenok6428-Jul-11 0:08

oggenok64

28-Jul-11 0:08

I'm glad to say that i like this code Smile | :)

No horror there i my opinion.

- oggenok

Re: Comma operator considered harmful

BillW3328-Jul-11 4:03

BillW33

28-Jul-11 4:03

While I do use the comma operator, I do so sparingly. I also like code to be easily readable, which this example is not. Sigh | :sigh:

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

Re: Comma operator considered harmful

BobJanova29-Jul-11 5:39

BobJanova

29-Jul-11 5:39

That's not really bad, to me. Initialising and updating two variables in a loop is one of the well understood allowed places to use a comma. The thing that's wrong with this code is that the 3x3 nature of the board should be a variable (or at least a constant), not in there as a magic number 5 times.

Hall of Shame

VE226-Jul-11 3:52

VE2

26-Jul-11 3:52

"We all come across code that simply boggles the mind. Lazy kludges, embarrasing mistakes..."
Spell check embarrasing....should be embarrassing... Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

Re: Hall of Shame

Peter_in_278026-Jul-11 14:50

Peter_in_2780

26-Jul-11 14:50

Ever heard of self-referential irony?

Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994.

Re: Hall of Shame

Dalek Dave27-Jul-11 23:01

Dalek Dave

27-Jul-11 23:01

I think it was just a mistake.

------------------------------------

I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave

CCC Link[^]
Trolls[^]

Re: Hall of Shame

Peter_in_278028-Jul-11 0:02

Peter_in_2780

28-Jul-11 0:02

Spoiler!

Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994.

Re: Hall of Shame

TorstenFrings28-Jul-11 3:23

TorstenFrings

28-Jul-11 3:23

He just spoiled the spoiling

How to generate a menu [modified]

Keith Barrow24-Jul-11 21:50

Keith Barrow

24-Jul-11 21:50

This is the loop that generates our main menu , all on one line:

XML

<%   int i = 1; foreach (Fatthallah.Web.HttpHandler.PetraMainMenu mainMenuItem in mainMenuCollection) { Response.Write("<li style=\"float:" + (lang == "en" ? "left" : "right") + "\"><a  id =\"a" + i + "\" name=\"a" + i + "\" href=\"" + (mainMenuItem.MainMenuLink.Trim().Length > 0 ? ResolveUrl("~/" + mainMenuItem.MainMenuLink.Split('?')[0] + "lang=" + lang + "&" + mainMenuItem.MainMenuLink.Split('?')[1]) : "javascript:void(0)") + "\" onclick=\"fetchData('menuHandler.axd','hml','menu=true&id=" + mainMenuItem.MainMenuId + "&lang=" + lang + "',this);return false;\" onmouseout=\"hidebox(this);\" >" + (mainMenuItem.MainMenuTitleEnglish.Trim().Length > 0 && lang == "en" ? mainMenuItem.MainMenuTitleEnglish : mainMenuItem.MainMenuTitleArabic) + "</a></li>"); i++; } Response.Write("<script language='javascript' type='text/javascript'>mainMenuCounter =" + mainMenuCollection.ToArray().Length + "; var rtl=" + (lang == "en" ? "false" : "true") + ";</script>"); %>

My eyes are bleeding, and that's before I start the rant about how we keep our site bilingual and why we use JavaScript to replace what could be achieved with hyperlinks. Mad | :mad:

[Edit]

After a simple tidying exercise:

<%   
int i = 1; 
foreach (Fatthallah.Web.HttpHandler.PetraMainMenu mainMenuItem in mainMenuCollection) 
{
    Response.Write("<li style=\"float:" 
    + (lang == "en" ? "left" : "right") 
    + "\"><a  id =\"a" + i 
    + "\" name=\"a" + i 
    + "\" href=\""  + (mainMenuItem.MainMenuLink.Trim().Length > 0 ? ResolveUrl("~/" + mainMenuItem.MainMenuLink.Split('?')[0] 
    + "lang=" + lang 
    + "&amp;" + mainMenuItem.MainMenuLink.Split('?')[1]) : "javascript:void(0)") + "\" onclick=\"fetchData('menuHandler.axd','hml','menu=true&amp;id=" + mainMenuItem.MainMenuId 
    + "&amp;lang=" + lang + "',this);return false;\" onmouseout=\"hidebox(this);\" >" 
    + (mainMenuItem.MainMenuTitleEnglish.Trim().Length > 0 && lang == "en" ? mainMenuItem.MainMenuTitleEnglish : mainMenuItem.MainMenuTitleArabic) 
    + "</a></li>"); 
    i++; 
} 
Response.Write("<script language='javascript' type='text/javascript'>mainMenuCounter =" + mainMenuCollection.ToArray().Length + "; var rtl=" + (lang == "en" ? "false" : "true") + ";</script>"); 
%>

I think it was put on one line "keep our pages small" by removing unecessary whitespace, but this is code to generate html so it doesn't count. In any case it is still 100 times more complicated and convoluted than it needs to be for our purposes.

Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

modified on Monday, July 25, 2011 4:02 AM

Re: How to generate a menu

StM0n29-Jul-11 9:44

StM0n

29-Jul-11 9:44

Art, man, it's a... no... forget it... my eyes are bleeding too Cry | :((

could we get a smiley... sadey with red tears?

(yes|no|maybe)*

Re: How to generate a menu

the headless nick3-Aug-11 23:39

the headless nick

3-Aug-11 23:39

Really...

Who said boys don't cry...

Redundancy

Rob Grainger20-Jul-11 0:08

Rob Grainger

20-Jul-11 0:08

Another sample from our code base...

If UCase(optionText) = "True" Or optionText="1" Then
    ' Some code here
End If

Further down in the function, there's a test for Windows 3.1, so I guess this has been in place a while. Still no excuse though.

Re: Redundancy

RobCroll20-Jul-11 2:16

RobCroll

20-Jul-11 2:16

your not wRONG

"You get that on the big jobs."

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