Well after 15 years of programming you would think that I have seen it all

[MiCR0]

Hi all

Well after 15 years of programming you would think that I have seen it all however today I got a new client and there website moved too us and after looking at the code to say I was shocked would be an understatement….

 

There are so many rouge programmers out there we need something, this guy could not even do an if statement correctly and only operators he knows is equal to.

 

400 pages of pure crap and about as must functionally as a dustbin.

 

We need some sort of PHP free certification for a programmer that can be done online for free and awarded for free.

 

And not for a company but for a programmer and an online check system, this is about the 20th rouge programmer I came across this year..

 

What are your views

[ignace]

It's not just single programmers it are complete companies I once had an interview with a programmer from another company when I asked them after which methodology they applied and why? He replied: We write OO because it's better.. Completly stunned I asked him if he applied Unit-Testing on which he replied: why would you do that?

 

The companies framework went open-source a few years back and horrifying is an understatement.

 

Something different I also came across is website deployment in less or equal to 3 consecutive days.

[jskywalker]

Completly stunned I asked him if he applied Unit-Testing on which he replied: why would you do that?

 

and, why would you do that?

 

If only 'unit-testing' can safe the world, than you're right, but ......

[ignace]

Nothing can safe the world we are doomed the entire universe is against us: the sun, our planet, .., everybody!

 

Unit-Testing does not safe the world it discovers bugs early in the development process (atleast if one knows how to apply it). The same applies for Continuous Integration, Acceptance-Testing and Usability-Testing. They help you to create better software for the client and maintainable software for you.

[Mchl]

Completly stunned I asked him if he applied Unit-Testing on which he replied: why would you do that?

 

and, why would you do that?

 

The correct question is: 'why wouldn't you do that?' (and there are actually some valid responses to it). When company allegedly using OO approach to programming does not know benefits of TDD, that doesn't bode well.

 

'Do you do unit tests?'

'Why would you do that?'

'Do you do encapsulate fields in your classes?'

'Why would you do that?'

'Do you try to make your classes as decoupled as possible?'

'Why would you do that?'

'DRY'

'Wha...?'

 

 

[ignace]

Completly stunned I asked him if he applied Unit-Testing on which he replied: why would you do that?

 

and, why would you do that?

 

The correct question is: 'why wouldn't you do that?' (and there are actually some valid responses to it). When company allegedly using OO approach to programming does not know benefits of TDD, that doesn't bode well.

 

'Do you do unit tests?'

'Why would you do that?'

'Do you do encapsulate fields in your classes?'

'Why would you do that?'

'Do you try to make your classes as decoupled as possible?'

'Why would you do that?'

'DRY'

'Wha...?'

 

 

 

Why did you become a programmer?

I didn't. I just visited the company on open-business day someone assigned me a seat and I'm "working" here ever since.

 

Altough this may be funny now it's what we face almost everyday people which you have to work with who actually have no idea of what they are doing.. I knew I had to get that Engineer Degree and work for IBM

[jskywalker]

I knew I had to get that Engineer Degree and work for IBM

 

But...... that means the world is NoT comming to an end.... 

 

Pfew, you almost got me there..... 

[ignace]

Well I still can get that degree and start working for IBM some day, so you are only spared a few years before cataclysm starts Besides if I won't kill you, time will, or the Sun, or a war between US and China, or Iran, or climate change, or terrorists, or ..

 

6 million ways to die, choose one!

[Catfish]

everyone knows everything gives you CANCER. i choose cancer!

[dezinerite]

400 pages? Was his website actually working properly and did it look okay? Honestly, I think it's funny when I see codes that are messy and all over the place.  But a large percentage of our site visitors don't know much or anything about how to get a website up.

 

Ultimately, if the site functions the way it's supposed to who are we to complain? As someone who learnt HTML & CSS practically on my own, there's no way I code just like anyone who learnt it in class.  As long as my sites are compatible with all the browsers and do what they're supposed to do, my clients are happy.

[cags]

Ultimately, if the site functions the way it's supposed to who are we to complain? As someone who learnt HTML & CSS practically on my own, there's no way I code just like anyone who learnt it in class.  As long as my sites are compatible with all the browsers and do what they're supposed to do, my clients are happy.

Which is all very well and good... up to a point. The problem occurs when you are not the person who is expected to update that site. Let's say you make a site for a client and a year down the line they need some changes and a few additions made. Unfortunately you are unavailable because you have retired, quit, died or are just too busy to work on it. The client approaches another developer and says can you please make changes x, y and z. Happily the developer agrees, however when they come to look at the code it's a complete mess. It could take the developer many hours to understand the rabbit warren that is the script, many more if you include fixing/removing the reliance on deprecated, error riddled, unsecured code.

 

Whilst your original fee may have seemed quite reasonable at the time, take off the extra cost from the new developer for fixing your code and all of a sudden the original deal doesn't seem quite as good a choice. Alternatively and probably more likely the customer refuses to pay for such things because 'the site works' as it is, meaning the developer either has to put in the extra time for free to at least decipher your code so they can make the changes, or refuse the work. At this point the developer has missed out on what should have been an easy job and the client has nobody to update their code until you either come out of retirement, change careers back to being a web developer, get resurrected or finish your current backlog of work.

 

Obviously whilst I used the term 'you' I'm not aiming that specifically at dezinerite, for all I know their code is perfectly sensible, albeit using a different indenting style or something. I'm simply highlighting a real problem that can stem from the opinion "coding standards don't matter, it's only me that looks at the code". Perhaps I'm biased but such problems are going to be far more rife amongst back-end scripts like PHP than HTML/CSS. After all, in order to achieve any kind of consistency across browser platforms the code will have to be at least partially 'valid'. 

[Daniel0]

You're also forgetting that if your code is a mess, it will also be difficult for you to maintain in six months when it's no longer clear in your head what you did and why you did it (if you even knew that in the first place).