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Survey Results

What are the worst habit a developer can have?

Survey period: 28 Jun 2021 to 5 Jul 2021

Obviously not an exhaustive list...

OptionVotes% 
Reinventing the wheel instead of using existing libraries35140.48
Prematurely optimising18821.68
Adding a million features "just in case"35340.72
Not commenting (especially when it's tricky code)43149.71
Commenting too much12214.07
Massively over-engineering things40146.25
Pulling in new technologies / libraries / frameworks for no good reason44150.87
Using the same tool for every single problem11913.73
Leaving edge cases and error handling to others36341.87
5,000 line functions39445.44
Other (please comment)242.77
Respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer; totals may not add up to 100%



 
General"Massively over-engineering things"? No, no ... that's a plus! Pin
OriginalGriff27-Jun-21 23:19
mveOriginalGriff27-Jun-21 23:19 
GeneralRe: "Massively over-engineering things"? No, no ... that's a plus! Pin
Jacquers28-Jun-21 23:21
Jacquers28-Jun-21 23:21 
GeneralRe: "Massively over-engineering things"? No, no ... that's a plus! Pin
Matt McGuire29-Jun-21 4:33
professionalMatt McGuire29-Jun-21 4:33 
GeneralRe: "Massively over-engineering things"? No, no ... that's a plus! Pin
Daniel Pfeffer30-Jun-21 23:01
professionalDaniel Pfeffer30-Jun-21 23:01 
GeneralRe: "Massively over-engineering things"? No, no ... that's a plus! Pin
OriginalGriff30-Jun-21 23:28
mveOriginalGriff30-Jun-21 23:28 
GeneralAlmost all of them Pin
den2k8827-Jun-21 20:58
professionalden2k8827-Jun-21 20:58 
GeneralEverything and even more Pin
Bernhard Hiller27-Jun-21 20:49
Bernhard Hiller27-Jun-21 20:49 
General(Almost) all of them? PinPopular
Mike (Prof. Chuck)27-Jun-21 18:35
professionalMike (Prof. Chuck)27-Jun-21 18:35 
It's a question of "polite code".
The options list in this question is just a list of "bad behavior" a dev should avoid.

Code must be readable, well documented where necessary, but not "documented because every method must have a comment block on top".
A method should fit on the screen. Not 5k, not even 1k, in best case not more than 50 lines of code in a single method. You can split that if think about it.
SOLID. A class (and each method) is responsible for ONE thing, not more, not less.

Polite code. Others shall have a chance to understand what's going on.
Readable, not crazy abbreviated method and member names ("customerID", not "cid"). No lone wolf code. Code for the swarm, for the herd.

Oh, and very important: Code must be ENGLISH. I don't want to see spanish or german or any other language in comments when looking up something at stack overflow. I speak german. I live in Austria, but coding is an english thing. Programming languages are "english". No need to force your brain into perma-translate mode between class/method names and the language syntax. I costs so much energy.
Well designed classes and methods allow us to write "kind of" english sentences when writing code.

if (customer.isLoggedIn()) logoutButton.setVisible(true);
is easier to understand and read than
if (kunde.eingeloggt()) abmeldenKnopf.setVisible(true);

A dev gets tired 3 times faster if he/she is forced to "switch" languages all the time when reading/writing code. Think english when writing code. No matter what your native language is.

my 2 cent.
Cheers!
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modified 28-Jun-21 0:41am.

GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Bernhard Hiller27-Jun-21 20:52
Bernhard Hiller27-Jun-21 20:52 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Mike (Prof. Chuck)28-Jun-21 0:33
professionalMike (Prof. Chuck)28-Jun-21 0:33 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Sander Rossel27-Jun-21 22:15
professionalSander Rossel27-Jun-21 22:15 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Mike (Prof. Chuck)28-Jun-21 0:38
professionalMike (Prof. Chuck)28-Jun-21 0:38 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Sander Rossel28-Jun-21 1:13
professionalSander Rossel28-Jun-21 1:13 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Mike (Prof. Chuck)28-Jun-21 1:53
professionalMike (Prof. Chuck)28-Jun-21 1:53 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Carl_Sharman28-Jun-21 22:57
Carl_Sharman28-Jun-21 22:57 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Julian Ragan29-Jun-21 9:51
Julian Ragan29-Jun-21 9:51 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Mike (Prof. Chuck)29-Jun-21 23:04
professionalMike (Prof. Chuck)29-Jun-21 23:04 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Member 1046756930-Jun-21 0:58
Member 1046756930-Jun-21 0:58 
GeneralRe: (Almost) all of them? Pin
Nelek29-Jun-21 9:41
protectorNelek29-Jun-21 9:41 

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