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Picture this. VB.NET code written by a newb that needs to be updated with some support for a new file format.
I'm looking at a single method that's 17 pages(!) long and doesn't return anything.
It contains NINETY EIGHT If statements. Some are chained together with ElseIf, some are nested down to five levels deep.
There is lots of this:
If condition-expression Then
ElseIf condition-expression Then
If condition-expression Then
Else
EndIf
ElseIf condition-expression Then
ElseIf condition-expression Then
Else
End If
Shoot me. Please. I beg of you.
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So do you guys really have no process for vetting noobcode?
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This isn't a production app. It's a tool that's used by a couple of teams, and no, there was no cuh thing a vetting.
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Wait!
I think I know that guy who wrote that method.
I mean, there couldn't be two people in the world that would do that could there? 
I thought he was drummed out of development years ago though.
EDIT
Oh, wait, our guy didn't use methods.
He wrote all of his code copy/past style and it was something like 20 pages long too.
It was the same for loop copy pasted over and over.
And, it was in prod and it finally failed in the for loop.
So Instead of fixing it in one place... 
Yes, I'm serious.
EDIT 2
And I should mention -- and I'm not kidding -- he was a MCSD. Fantastic test taker, I'm sure. 
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Quote: he was a MCSD. Fantastic test taker, I'm sure.
I is all book smarts and stuff now. 
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You owe it to yourself and those that follow to refactor that thing. Otherwise, the next If Then you add might cause the compiler to wave the white flag with a "Nesting too deep" error.
Seen it, done it. At least the doesn't have goto's does it? Mine had that too.
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What verb describes the act of using the phonetic alphabet? (ie: Alpha, Romeo, Foxtrot etc)
Thanks
[EDIT: Ooops seems like I misposted, should've been the Lounge  ]
... such stuff as dreams are made on
modified 12-Oct-17 9:47am.
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Idioting?
* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* 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
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.
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Idioting is when you deliberately misunderstand a question.
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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I thought that willfully misunderstaning was ElizabethBenneting...
(I forgot the joke question. And yes, I am skilled in idioting... a Master Idiot, I think).
* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* 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
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.
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Funny answer ... don't be too demanding for yourself
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The verb depends on what you're using it for (spelling, reciting, memorising etc.) You could then combine said verb with an adverb such as phonetically or acrophonically (e.g. "He spelled out the word acrophonically") but that wouldn't necessarily point to the NATO alphabet without further qualification.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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I mean the verb for speaking audibly over a crappy phone or radio connection.
"Sorry I cannot hear if you are saying "F" or "S" would you please ----?"
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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spell?
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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I doubt that. I am pretty sure "spell it out" could be speaking like: "S", "S", "L".
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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I think I'd just ask them to spell it phonetically or just prompt them with "Is that F for foxtrot, S for sierra?"
If there is a specific word for it - and I doubt that there is - it would be so obscure that they wouldn't recognise it over a crackly 'phone line.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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icaoing?
If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't. — Lyall Watson
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If there were, very few people would know what you mean when you say it. 
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There is none; and you'd have to specify which phonetic alphabet, as there are multiple in use. As a programmer I never learned the "proper" words that go with each letter (except Utrecht), so I keep making new words up on the spot.
CodeProject. Cow, Opening, Donkey, Eek*, Pizza, Rats, Oven, Joker, Ethereum, Crap, Tippetytoe.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Phoneticize? ..as in, 'can you please phoneticize that last word?' (spell checker disagrees)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Browser Spell Checkers are often useless.
Phoneticize | Define Phoneticize at Dictionary.com[^]
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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SELECT DATEADD(dd,DATEDIFF(dd,GETDATE(),@rundate),GETDATE()) - [ProcessSchedule].[LastRunTime] As [Difference]
So - intention is wonderfully opaque there then.
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How long has it been since it last ran? 
Am I the unofficial winner of an official no-prize? 
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Would the task have been overdue if we were at the current time on the date at which the task was due.
A very bad piece of code for a very bad business need.
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Nice to see that DD still has a foothold in programming, despite his venture into politics.
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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So I have started reading the book , and on chapter 6 Functions, 6.3 Return Types and the return statement, he says :
"Return from main
There is one exception to the rule that a function with a return type other than
void must return a value: The main function is allowed to terminate without a
return. If control reaches the end of main and there is no return, then the compiler
implicitly inserts a return of 0".
And I am thinking :
What? Why mr. Lippman ? why do you have to express a simple idea in such a complicated way , and mention something that is on the edge of inaccuracy ? You should say :
There is NO exception to the rule that a function with a return type other than
void must return a value. But because we , the programmers , do not like to type things when not necessary , the compiler lets us omit typing explicitly the return 0; in function main.So instead of
int main() {
return 0;
}
you are allowed to type
int main() {
}
and the compiler will happily insert the implicit return 0; so main() returns a value as it should.
I know it is slightly longer as text , but it is what you should mention.
I have many other examples from this book on which I could complain. Generally it is a correct book , and anyone who wants to learn C++ cannot avoid it, but although the information is there (and it is correct) it always fails to present that information in a way that will help you to remember it , or fails to aid in categorizing and summarizing the new information. I constantly feel that the only way for this book to be useful is to use it as a primary trustful source for writing my own notes (and they would be as many pages as the book !). But anyway , I am doing all the exercises , and keep reading.
I plan to read on parallel the book from I.Horton, Beginning C++ (2015 edition) to get some coverage for C++14.
modified 11-Oct-17 17:41pm.
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geodoom wrote: the compiler lets us
The standard doesn't. Which compiler? Under which conditions?
* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* 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
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.
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According to this post on Stack Overflow the standard does say that if no return is hit in main, the effect is that of return 0;.
I've not verified the quote.
98.4% of statistics are made up on the spot.
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It seems I confused C standard with C++. Thanks.
* CALL APOGEE, SAY AARDWOLF
* 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
* Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
* I'm a puny punmaker.
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 15 years ago I tried to read a book by him, but I fell asleep when I got to:
"Lippma
... such stuff as dreams are made on
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I don't understand your complaint. His verbiage is perfectly clear and discrete.
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Take a look at this code
static int test()
{
int \u0066\u006F\u006F;
return \u0066\u006F\u006F;
}
Did you know you could do that? I didn't - I knew you could use unicode identifiers (though I never see them in real code), but this is a whole other level of madness.
Obviously that variable is being used but is uninitialized. Try to guess what the compile error will be.
It's not "Use of unassigned local variable '\u0066\u006F\u006F'".
At least it is consistent though, it seems that identifiers written in that style are considered to be identical to the decoded version, so you can mix it with simplify writing it down, and it shows up in intellisense in decoded form and so on.
It gets better. int is a keyword, so it's blue and you can't use it as a name for a local variable except with the @-prefix. So, this works:
int \u0069\u006E\u0074 = 0;
@int++;
That second line can be typed with intellisense auto-completion! That clever bastard knows about the variable called "int" and knows it had better put the @-prefix in front too, just typing "i" calls it up in the pop-up menu. On the other hand, the tool tip for the "int" entry also shows "(local variable) int int", but this is an entry with the value type icon. (this was all in VS2010, it may have changed since then)
In total, I'm not sure whether to feel impressed or disgusted, or a bit of both.
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I added the static method test() to a LINQPad script and it showed a squiggly line on the return statement.
When I floated over it the error message is:
CS0165 Use of unassiged local variable 'foo'
That makes sense.
I set the value to 34 on the first line and it works. Wow. Never knew. 
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I'm considering the option to write such a variable name as a bug... and wonder how the rest of the code looks like...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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That makes sense, in an odd sort of way.
And this works:
static int test()
{
int \u0066\u006F\u006F;
foo = 6;
return \u0066\u006F\u006F;
}No compiler errors, just as you'd expect.
I'd guess it's there to allow Chinese, Katakana, Persian, ... variable names and just happens to work in English as well.
But whoever found that out and used it at the coalface should be taken out and shot...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: I'd guess it's there to allow Chinese, Katakana, Persian, ... variable names and just happens to work in English as well.
Maybe? I don't see much point though, since they can be used without this hexadecimal encoding step. For example, there's no problem here:
static int test()
{
int 変数 = 1;
int 整数 = 2;
return 変数 + 整数;
}
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Yes, but I couldn't type them - they all look too similar to me. So I'd need the Unicode values or copy'n'paste to modify that code.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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sequences of underscores are also valid variable names
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This looks like it has been written by a decompiler. At least I've seen dotPeek from JetBrains show me code like this a few times, but I don't remember the version.
Maybe someone decompiled another library to extract one (or a few) methods out of it without actually modifying the copied code?
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And I just thought of this...
int \u0066\u006F\u006F = 34;
Console.WriteLine(nameof( \u0066\u006F\u006F));
// writes out foo
Works in C# 6.0 and above
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Could be worse.
You'll be happy to know that I tried to assign a value to int \u263a and the IDE kvetched.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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You just need an extra 0: int \u0263a = 42;
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Sure, but that's not an emoticon.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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strText2 = WeekdayName(myCurrentDate.DayOfWeek, False, Microsoft.VisualBasic.FirstDayOfWeek.Monday)
I just found and fixed this in a half-dozen places whilst reviewing event logs for an Azure web app. TBF, this web app is for a strictly M-F organization, so there should be no activity at all on a Sunday...but it does seem to be happening from time to time.
btw, yes the datetime variable is a utc tz and dst adjusted datetime for the client. This code was basically just for display. I'm sure there are better ways to do it, but i'm not asking. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Quote: VisualBasic.FirstDayOfWeek.Monday
That's the International Standard. I don't understand what the problem was.
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The problem happens when the myCurrentDate variable represents a Sunday where myCurrentDate.DayOfWeek returns a 0. The WeekdayName function expects the first parameter to be between 1 and 7...0 throws an exception.
The corrected code is:
rText2 = WeekdayName(myCurrentDate.DayOfWeek + 1, False, Microsoft.VisualBasic.FirstDayOfWeek.Sunday)
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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No, the real corrected code is:
rText2 = myCurrentDate.ToString("dddd")
Custom Date and Time Format Strings | Microsoft Docs[^]
Or, if you really want to pad the code out:
rText2 = System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetDayName(myCurrentDate.DayOfWeek)
The vast majority of the Microsoft.VisualBasic assembly is just there for backwards-compatibility with VB6, and should be avoided wherever possible.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Thank you Richard! Helpful as always...I knew there had to be a better way!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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string isValidArticle(string article) - The Daily WTF[^]
A Zero-Day exploit in the .NET framework through the WSDL parser.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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We need a new icon for "coding horror". Perhaps a WTF with its hair standing on end?
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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