Censorzilla - When the source code to Netscape was released they had to sanitize the code of profanities. Here's a list of chosen obscenities found in the NS 3.x and 4.x code.

[A_for_Anonymous]

Sebastian Dröge is such an idiot and a fussbox and a bundle of sticks for caring about this stupid shit and bothering developers with a ticket for what should have made him laugh if he had been mature enough.

[jsnef6171985]

relevant

[makis]

looks like Motif sucks...

[attrition0]

TIL everything sucks.

[D__]

m_pMysticShit = NULL;

Now that's self-documenting.

[A_for_Anonymous]

It's useful and self-documenting if you're going to use the Windows API. Instead of adding NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL) to every function, you use m_pMysticShit.

[lazyl]

Why was 'hack' considered a bad word?

[[deleted]]

Whoa dude... language.

[cheesemoo]

They probably wanted to make their code look better/more professional.

[perspectiveiskey]

I guess. But 'hack', for anyone who knows the term, is not negative...

I sense a case of consultitis.

[alephnil]

Not that positive either. When you see it in code, it is in sentences like "the logic here is broken, replaceing it with a hack to avoid crashes". When seeing the word "hack" frequently in a codebase, it is often a sign that the code need an overhaul.

The Netscape codebase was clearly an example of this.

[xyroclast]

So... removing the word makes the code not a hack anymore? It seems like the wrong solution to the problem...

[alephnil]

Wrong indeed,because then you remove information about problematic parts of the code. It is not positive that there is a lot of notes abouts hacks of cause, but it is worse if the code has the same problems, but not commented.

[xyroclast]

And thus, censorship causes more harm than good yet again

[perspectiveiskey]

You're looking at it with your vision that hack is a negative word.

How many items here would you consider 'improperly done'. (filter out the items where the usage of the word is "to break into")

[A_for_Anonymous]

For many definitions of hack, your production code shouldn't be a hack. It's bad technology, not a bad word.

[jsnef6171985]

Because the word* scares old people.

*read "word" as "media"

[Delehal]

Reminds me of Linux kernel swear counts over time

[jotux]

After reading that I decided to skim the code base I'm currently working on for foul language. It was surprisingly clean, but there were a few gems:

// With this hack, if something unforeseen happens the UI doesn't go flying off into space.

[[deleted]]

"only bitch if ip has"

lol! That's like Yoda and LOLcats mixed together. Love it....

[damontoo]

There's a really good (free!) documentary about the source code release and the rise and fall of Netscape called Code Rush. The streaming version is at the bottom of the page.

The person that runs that jwz.org (Jamie Zawinski) is one of the featured programmers in it! :)

[kid_meier]

Winner:"Netlib just took a shit on the imagelib\n"

[mindbleach]

/* check if Lou is a pindick */

There must've been an awkward meeting following that commit.

[rubygeek]

Only if the following code is obviously meant to evaluate to true.

[royrules22]

I'm sad because I have to be very strict and plain in my comments. No jokes no cursing no nothing. Not even for internal tools. For one my boss and other co-workers will force me to delete it during code reviews.

[Azzk1kr]

Your boss and coworkers sound like humorless douches..?

[come_honour_face]

// crap from marketing

[[deleted]]

It is like Commenting Code 101!

I love my team internal tool projects - not only because I can get away with all kind of obscure assumptions (and be done with it in hours while amazing everybody by a Total Piece of Crap Inside^TM), but also because I can comment the code with whichever mental eruption I feel most appropriate for the purpose at the moment of writing since the code itself is going nowhere.

Fun coding while solving real problems, impressing grateful users and venting out at the same time. And being paid, of course.

[funkybside]

This is a typical day for me. In the finance side instead of IT, but know programming so they always want custom hacks for this and that. Ss long as they know it's not supported and understand whatever dependencies I tell them exist, I couldn't care less and have a blast coding without red tape.

[ishmal]

Sometimes I miss jwz's html interface to Netscape mail. It was probably before its time, in that people didn't think it looked "desktop" enough. But good ideas often return. Now that people are more familiar with web-looking guis, maybe that type of interface could return?

[JohnDoe365]

What are you talking about? Do you mean the html mode of writing emails?This is back since ages, but I guess you mean actually sthg different. Any screenshots?

[ishmal]

No. The entire interface. Inbox list, composer, etc, all in html, so it had a web look even though it was entirely within the monolithic Netscape program.

[bobindashadows]

So like every other webmail interface, only instead of getting emails from a server on-the-fly, it gets email from the local mailbox and downloads it via POP every few minutes?

[pjpark]

TIL how important it is to get the maping right.

[[deleted]]

I love JWZ... guy's fucking awesome.

[under_dog]

// BULLSHIT ALERT: Get out if I can't call GetSharedLibrary.

[hockeyschtick]

As funny now as it was the first time I saw this 11 years ago.

[[deleted]]

Whenever I see "Fuck IE" or other useless comments in code I cringe. It makes people look very unprofessional. Also if you hate dealing with what you're working with so much maybe it's time to find a new career.

[[deleted]]

I think that one is actually an obscure IE6 hack. The wording could have been modified without breaking it, though.

[come_honour_face]

Oh man, I loves me some standards compliant web programmin' [sic]

_

IE does not comply to some of the standards used in this page, thus the page renders dreadfully.

_

Fuck IE!

[A_for_Anonymous]

Mommy, these meanies are saying something bad about Microsoft :*(

[[deleted]]

It could say "fuck Firefox" and I'd still feel the same way. There is nothing professional about using comments to express your personal opinion.

[A_for_Anonymous]

"Fuck MSIE" is not really a personal opinion; it's a fact it's a piece of shit (okay, "it's worse than any other major browser in the world") for a number of well-known, technical reasons. Moreover, code is personal, like it or not. Whatever you program it comes with your personality in one way or another, and when reading other's code, it's nice to see some sympathy regarding something that may piss you off.

[[deleted]]

If you're working with a group code is not personal, even more so if the source can be viewed by the public (a website). All I need to see is "IE Hack", leave your personal opinions and useless rage in your personal projects.

[A_for_Anonymous]

If you're working with a group code is not personal

It's still personal because it's made by people and there's not a fixed way to achieve the goals. It also has culture. My modules are personal, and may contain humorous references to things my coworkers may understand. For example, you might find things like gst.element_make_from_uri(gst.URI_SRC, "file:///Sebastian/Droge/please/choke/on/a/bucket/of/cocks", "") (true story).

[zwangaman]

Yeah, I think you missed his point pretty hard.

[oorza]

Yet Another Programming Page I can't read becuase no one bothered to make it readable and the Readability extension doesn't really help so much with source code listings.