Note to Programmers

April 12, 2004 5 Comments

Copy-‘n-Paste is not “Software Reuse”. It is an invitation to a swift steel-toed kick in the tush if I ever have to fix your lameass code.

That is all.

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5 Comments

  2. thesaj April 12, 2004 at 19:51

    …

    FORGIVE ME OH GREAT PROGRAMMING APHID!!!

    One Aphid, Two Aphid,
    Green Aphid, Green Aphid,
    Green Aphid, Green Aphid…

    (hmm are we seeing a trend?)

  3. book_wyrm April 12, 2004 at 22:29

    I’m sorry — mind translating this entry into computer-illiterateese?

    1. avdi April 12, 2004 at 22:55

      Imagine you were writing a manual. Imagine that there is a section of the manual that describes two procedures which are identical except that in the first the red button is supposed to be pressed, and in the second the green button is supposed to be pressed. You’re writing this in Word, and you get the bright idea that since the two sections are identical, you can just copy and paste the first one and replace all instances of “red” with “green”. Which you do, except that before you get around to doing the substitution, Fred from down the hall drops in and you get so caught up shooting the breeze you completely forget to make that little change.

      Now, instead, imagine that you are a different person, responsible for updating a completely unrelated part of the manual long after the above-described events took place. And imagine that the users of the manual are sending nasty emails all about how the manual you sent them doesn’t work…

      …get the picture?

      1. book_wyrm April 13, 2004 at 04:34

        LOL

        Yeah, I can see how that would suck.

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