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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.

 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
BobJanova5-Sep-11 23:04
BobJanova5-Sep-11 23:04 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
tobep9-Sep-11 7:13
tobep9-Sep-11 7:13 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Sander Rossel9-Sep-11 7:22
professionalSander Rossel9-Sep-11 7:22 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... PinPopular
RCoate5-Sep-11 18:37
RCoate5-Sep-11 18:37 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Sander Rossel5-Sep-11 19:58
professionalSander Rossel5-Sep-11 19:58 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... PinPopular
Rob Grainger6-Sep-11 0:32
Rob Grainger6-Sep-11 0:32 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Firo Atrum Ventus6-Sep-11 14:35
Firo Atrum Ventus6-Sep-11 14:35 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Stefan_Lang30-Sep-11 2:59
Stefan_Lang30-Sep-11 2:59 
Rob Grainger wrote:
The 1970's called, they want their developer back Wink | ;-)

 

If people rarely keep comments in sync with the code, the chance of them keeping separate technical documents is almost nil.

Actually that is exactly what our company did in the 80s to get ISO certification. Our entire software development process was defined around keeping everything in sync. And it worked!

Rob Grainger wrote:
Almost every project I've worked on with large amounts of technical documentation has been government contracts - badly run, badly designed, over budget and frequently failing, but I've not seen a single example of useful technical documentation on any project I've been lucky enough to work on.


Funny you are saying this, because before we introduced extensive documentation and the process around it, we did have issues with budget and time overruns, but rarely after.

I've learned - by example - that a well organized process put into action by a disciplined team can produce incredibly high quality output with predictable results. And the documentation was crucial to that! Before we had that extensive documentation, we lost too much time reimplementing stuff that wasn't specified in sufficient detail.

Of course, back then the process we had was a modified waterfall model. Nowadays, with agile development, you need a lot less documentation - it's bound to change anyways.

In the end, what it all comes down to is that you need a good process. if that process requires a lot of documentation, then you need that. If the process can do without, then you don't. OTOH, if the process is bad, then no amount of documentation can save you.
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
MicroVirus6-Sep-11 2:57
MicroVirus6-Sep-11 2:57 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
RCoate6-Sep-11 15:07
RCoate6-Sep-11 15:07 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Nagy Vilmos5-Sep-11 22:43
professionalNagy Vilmos5-Sep-11 22:43 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... PinPopular
Al_Brown6-Sep-11 0:01
Al_Brown6-Sep-11 0:01 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Sander Rossel6-Sep-11 6:46
professionalSander Rossel6-Sep-11 6:46 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Al_Brown6-Sep-11 23:34
Al_Brown6-Sep-11 23:34 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Ian Shlasko6-Sep-11 2:01
Ian Shlasko6-Sep-11 2:01 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
CDP18026-Sep-11 21:28
CDP18026-Sep-11 21:28 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Keith Barrow6-Sep-11 3:01
professionalKeith Barrow6-Sep-11 3:01 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Sander Rossel6-Sep-11 6:48
professionalSander Rossel6-Sep-11 6:48 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
Phan7om8-Sep-11 2:29
Phan7om8-Sep-11 2:29 
GeneralRe: Commenting code... Pin
annathor8-Sep-11 22:53
annathor8-Sep-11 22:53 
GeneralShort but stinky... PinPopular
Rob Grainger4-Sep-11 4:29
Rob Grainger4-Sep-11 4:29 
GeneralRe: Short but stinky... Pin
BillW334-Sep-11 16:13
professionalBillW334-Sep-11 16:13 
JokeRe: Short but stinky... Pin
Peter_in_27804-Sep-11 18:57
professionalPeter_in_27804-Sep-11 18:57 
JokeA bad Case of comparison PinPopular
Julien Villers1-Sep-11 3:58
professionalJulien Villers1-Sep-11 3:58 
GeneralRe: A bad Case of comparison Pin
thoiness1-Sep-11 4:16
thoiness1-Sep-11 4:16 

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