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: Don't know whether it's weird, or wonderful

Dan Neely24-Feb-16 5:20

Dan Neely

24-Feb-16 5:20

Dunno about that, if I had to work on that codebase, I think starting by running it through a bottom end obfuscator that replaced all the variables with 'a', 'b', 'c', etc. would be a good start.

Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius

Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt

Re: Don't know whether it's weird, or wonderful

Nguyen.H.H.Dang21-Aug-16 15:11

Nguyen.H.H.Dang

21-Aug-16 15:11

Im working at Japan, so 1 day my task is review some code of the internship, and he naming variables with Kanji (im not Japanese). Its like a pain in the a.. D'Oh! | :doh:

In code we trust !

Re: Don't know whether it's weird, or wonderful

Dennis_E15-Oct-15 2:14

Dennis_E

15-Oct-15 2:14

Using escape characters is also fun:

public const double \u0050\u0049 = 3.14;
public const double PI = 3.14; //error CS0102: The type `Test' already contains a definition for `PI'

modified 15-Oct-15 8:25am.

Re: Don't know whether it's weird, or wonderful

phil.o15-Oct-15 11:32

phil.o

15-Oct-15 11:32

That pretty much leads to code obfuscation Smile | :)

Even π is more readable than \u03C0.
But, again, I don't want to defend the use of extended unicode characters for type and member names. That was just a trial-for-fun, I'm exploring C# 6.

I never finish anyth

Re: Don't know whether it's weird, or wonderful

PIEBALDconsult16-Oct-15 8:02

PIEBALDconsult

16-Oct-15 8:02

No! No public single-character identifiers! OMG | :OMG:

Re: Don't know whether it's weird, or wonderful

phil.o16-Oct-15 8:15

phil.o

16-Oct-15 8:15

I know

I never finish anyth

C++ expression(s)

C3D112-Oct-15 23:04

C3D1

12-Oct-15 23:04

Today i found some really weird expression in some C++-code

C++

if(++(k=j) != node.end())
{
    if("something" == *k)
        doSomething();
    else if("something other" == *k)
        doSomethingOther();
}

and just ~30 lines below that weird if statement i found this:

C++

k = j;
if(++k != node.end())
{
    if("something" == *k)
        doSomething();
    else if("something other" == *k)
        doSomethingOther();
}

why always so weird? Why don' to it in an nice way

C++

k = j + 1;
if(k != node.end())
{
    if("something" == *k)
        doSomething();
    else if("something other" == *k)
        doSomethingOther();
}

In some other code a few days ago i found this

C++

n[idx++] = a[++idx2]++;

where both, a and n, are defined as void*

What are the ugliest C++ expressions that have you seen in the last few weeks/months

Re: C++ expression(s)

megaadam13-Oct-15 0:46

megaadam

13-Oct-15 0:46

C3D1 wrote:
why always so weird?

Hmmm... isn't that a programming question ? Cool | :cool:

[EDIT: Silly me! I thought we were in the Lounge ]

I think some people write such nasty stuff because it makes them feel smart. And maybe, a few of them think that it compiles into faster code WTF | :WTF:

Life is too shor

Re: C++ expression(s)

den2k8813-Oct-15 2:54

den2k88

13-Oct-15 2:54

The shorter the code the faster it gets... thrown out of the window along with the programmer Suspicious | :suss:

I sometimes write artworks like that but in 5 minutes I expand them to the readable form. It's just better.

GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver

"When you have eliminated the JavaScript, whatever remains must be an empty page." -- Mike Hankey

Re: C++ expression(s)

Indivara13-Oct-15 3:52

Indivara

13-Oct-15 3:52

My favourite is the --> "operator".

int counter = 10;
while (counter --> 0)
{
    // do something
}

Some people consider it ugly.

Re: C++ expression(s)

den2k8813-Oct-15 4:01

den2k88

13-Oct-15 4:01

It's... wonderful. And weird.

Re: C++ expression(s)

Agent__00715-Oct-15 0:10

Agent__007

15-Oct-15 0:10

Brilliant!

I actually Googled to find whether that "operator" really exists in C++! D'Oh! | :doh:

You have just been Sharapova'd.

Re: C++ expression(s)

Power Puff Boy15-Oct-15 0:22

Power Puff Boy

15-Oct-15 0:22

That's evil.

Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...

Re: C++ expression(s)

C3D129-Oct-15 21:21

C3D1

29-Oct-15 21:21

isn't that a C++ 11 feature?
I'm currently using the VC6 compiler... There is no C++ 11 Java | [Coffee]

Re: C++ expression(s)

CDP180213-Oct-15 4:21

CDP1802

13-Oct-15 4:21

C3D1 wrote:
k = j + 1;

That is a mistake. k obviously is a pointer and ++k will not increment this pointer by just 1 byte. It will increment it by the size of the type of k. Try it out and examine the memory address k points to in the debugger in both versions.

The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here

This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.

"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."

If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.

Re: C++ expression(s)

k505413-Oct-15 6:47

k5054

13-Oct-15 6:47

CDP1802 wrote:
C3D1 wrote:
k = j + 1;

That is a mistake. k obviously is a pointer and ++k will not increment this pointer by just 1 byte. It will increment it by the size of the type of k. Try it out and examine the memory address k points to in the debugger in both versions.

I think you're mistaken. k gets assigned j + sizeof(*j), not j + sizeof(*k). Hopefully j and k are compatible pointer types.

Edit: I'm not sure what k = j + 1 has to do with ++k. In any case, ++k does not increment by the size of the type of k, but rather by the size of the type k references.

modified 13-Oct-15 13:02pm.

Re: C++ expression(s)

PIEBALDconsult16-Oct-15 7:58

PIEBALDconsult

16-Oct-15 7:58

Vile. Implementation-dependant. Dead | X|

Re: C++ expression(s)

Dan Neely16-Oct-15 8:55

Dan Neely

16-Oct-15 8:55

C3D1 wrote:
What are the ugliest C++ expressions that have you seen in the last few weeks/months

In no particular order[1]:

#include "stdafx.h"

IMPLEMENT_DYNCREATE(CMainFrame, CFrameWndEx)

BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP(CMainFrame, CFrameWndEx)
    //{{AFX_MSG_MAP(CMainFrame)

    //}}AFX_MSG_MAP

    ON_COMMAND(ID_HELP, OnHelp)

END_MESSAGE_MAP()

CMainFrame::CMainFrame()

[1] Oh who am I kidding, it's Friday and I'm just going down a file and pasting in the order found.

Re: C++ expression(s)

C3D129-Oct-15 21:26

C3D1

29-Oct-15 21:26

Oh my god... The MFC MESSAGE_MAP... How could i miss this rape on #define-macros and the whole C++ Language...

Amazon's rules, Amazon's fail

Tibor Blazko8-Oct-15 8:11

Tibor Blazko

8-Oct-15 8:11

Thinking it's 21st century I registered with my name (Blažko, note so called soft z in the middle) and published something like an eBook.
Than I found that in some situations I see there my name as Blažko (what I reported them), even directly book's page is OK.

Later, after filling form (where is already no chance to change any name) I got this wonderful reply:
"Unfortunately, we are unable to approve your ad as your book's author name violates one of our ad guideline policies. i.e; the cover page has the name which is not correctly displayed/spelled."

ROTFL (There is no problem with cover page[^].)

(Actually they already "reached out to our technical team to investigate this issue. We'll contact you with more information by the end of the day on October 13, 2015.")

Man-in-the-middle SSL-Streams

Dr Gadgit30-Sep-15 8:53

Dr Gadgit

30-Sep-15 8:53

if you have ever wrote a proxy server and just wanted to relay SSL data then you just need to read the HTTPS connect to get the host name and then join the client socket to a server socket and pump the data between sockets.

Doing MITM after first installing a CA certificate on the client machine so that it works in stealth mode is not so easy and you need to use a SSL-Stream to authenticate with both the client and server to decrypt the data.

Trouble is a SSL-Stream in stealth mode won't give you the host name and if you read the socket that the SSL-Stream is conncted to so you can parse the host name from the stream then the SSL-Stream won't work, it's read forwards only.

So how did i patch this up to work using .NET 3.5 ?

Well i used something like two proxy servers and the first one read the socket stream to extract the host-name and then relayed the data to a second proxy that connected a SSL-Stream to the incoming net.socket and then asked the first proxy for the host name.

browser->host-name-proxy->MITM Proxy->Internet

OK i wrapped it up inside a single class so that it all worked inside a single proxy server on the same process id but i must be very cleaver for thinking outside the box and getting something to work or went about it all wrong and must be very stupi.

Maybe I needed to use some other network base class.

shoot away, it's code Jim but not as we know it Smile | :)

It's alive.....!

Duncan Edwards Jones18-Sep-15 4:42

Duncan Edwards Jones

18-Sep-15 4:42

private void ZombieCheck() {
    // If this transaction has been completed, throw exception since it is unusable.
    if (IsZombied) {

        if (IsYukonPartialZombie) {
            _internalTransaction = null; // yukon zombification
        }

        throw ADP.TransactionZombied(this);
    }
}

The code is perfectly good - it's the names that amuse..

Extra points - which large software company does this code come from?

Re: It's alive.....!

Richard Deeming18-Sep-15 4:52

Richard Deeming

18-Sep-15 4:52

Duncan Edwards Jones wrote:
Extra points - which large software company does this code come from?

Too easy[^]. Smile | :)

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

Re: It's alive.....!

Palash Mondal_18-Sep-15 5:12

Palash Mondal_

18-Sep-15 5:12

Beat me to it Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

Re: It's alive.....!

phil.o13-Oct-15 1:57

phil.o

13-Oct-15 1:57

When I read your title I thought of one of my favorite pinball tables Smile | :)

I never finish anyth

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