Jesus Christ I hate my own code

[andrewducker]

I just went into some code I swear I haven't touched in about 5 years.  I had only the vaguest idea of how it worked, but I knew I wanted to extend it.  So I carefully went through it, looking for the places where it coped with the three existing options and added in what looked like the right variant for a fourth option.  And fuck me if it didn't all work first time.  Of course, I still haven't got the faintest idea of how the code works, but it _does_ and the code is being consigned to the scrapheap in 4 months time anyway, so that's ok.

Comments

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Why does that make you hate your code? - it should make you love it. It was clearly written well enough (with enough forethought and neough clarity) for a dude with no clue about how it works or was put together to make a working addition quickly. Quality stuff in my book!

My main programming talent seems to be thinking ahead and an ability to do what you just did to your own code, to other people's. I seem to be able to understand enough to do nearly anything required *without* having to back up and 'understand' the whole thing.

I find concentrating equally on the very broad overall picture - usually the external systems and the non-computer systems and what the users are actually trying to *achieve* in their job (and with what info) - and on only the *appropriate* level of details for the task in hand gets the job done. A very finely tuned sense of when something is just crap and needs junked and how long it will take on a rewrite vs a hack job is also required, but that comes with experience. Well, not to everyone, as I have discovered.

Too many people spend too much time trying to 'understand' huge apps, or chunks of code. Just get the job done - but get it done *right*. Hacking bad, refactoring good!

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Bugger, I've got to do just that (again) with the Word code written by the German with too much patience (and no ablity to use whitespace). There is, beyond all reason, another whole module...