Modesty (and good taste) forbids me from posting any of my own commentary. And the fact that as preevus mentioned, like, it's been [mumble] years since I wrote anything that required the services of a compiler. (No, I don't consider Perl [that I've written] 'code'.)
Though now I think about it, I'm sure there was some turbo-for-windows circa 1990 where I became bored with the documentation and started writing a short story in the comments. If that's true, it'll be where the rot started.
TO be fair, the intent of that famous comment was "this isn't in the exam, don't worry about it" rather than it being anything particularly obscure.
I have a pile of code that the comments (attributed to me) says "handles the July 16th problem". I can't remember writing it, and none of the other people who have comments in it can either, nor can anyone remember speccing it or asking for it. We run it every year, just in case...
Bah, I've had a good snigger when looking at other people's code. It's the beauty of being a maintenance programmer rather than the poor sap who's been given a sketchy at best spec and a week to code a masterpiece in. I get to see the awful mistakes, point and laugh, and 3 days SLA to fix the bugger (Argh!).
In many ways developers are like plumbers, whenever we see someone elses work we shake our heads and say "what cowboy did you get to do this, it'll all have to be replaced"...
No-one ever asks plumbers to take a dreadful bodge that has been that way for years, fix everything up nice and shiny, but re-install all the old shit that was there before without losing any of it.
Yeah, I've read Joel On Software for ages. He makes a lot of sense, which is why it's weird that no-one I know actually uses his product, or indeed has even heard of it...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:53 pm (UTC)Comments from Microsoft source code
Date: 2005-04-02 09:43 pm (UTC)// to free a random pointer when you start Word95 from a desktop
// shortcut.
...and...
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 10:07 pm (UTC)/* Note the important difference between being on a bus and being a bus */ -- from code written by me.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 10:29 pm (UTC)Though now I think about it, I'm sure there was some turbo-for-windows circa 1990 where I became bored with the documentation and started writing a short story in the comments. If that's true, it'll be where the rot started.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 08:24 am (UTC)I have a pile of code that the comments (attributed to me) says "handles the July 16th problem". I can't remember writing it, and none of the other people who have comments in it can either, nor can anyone remember speccing it or asking for it. We run it every year, just in case...
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 10:34 am (UTC)(All hail, etc.)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 02:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 02:27 pm (UTC)No-one ever asks plumbers to take a dreadful bodge that has been that way for years, fix everything up nice and shiny, but re-install all the old shit that was there before without losing any of it.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 01:36 pm (UTC)Different bass, surely?
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:50 pm (UTC)Mind, P. doesn't mix with hackers much so she's not used to that sort of behaviour.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-02 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 06:11 am (UTC)Then again, maybe that just says something about the laughable quality of the (licensed at great expense) code we have to work with.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-03 06:15 pm (UTC)(Although I do understand bodge jobs!)