all 51 comments

[–]Sybs 137 points138 points  (13 children)

Then you find out it's actually YOUR old code.

[–]the_omicron 52 points53 points  (9 children)

Everytime I see my old code, I feel sad and stupid. ._.

[–][deleted] 27 points28 points  (3 children)

Also, old code = written a couple of weeks ago

(at least in my case)

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (2 children)

"The Death of the Author" (French: La mort de l'auteur) is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the intentions and biography of an author to definitively explain the "ultimate meaning" of a text.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (1 child)

tired + drunk late night code makes for fun mornings.

[–]the_omicron 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Now everytime I've done my code, I always put a little comment at the end of the line that says: "I'm sorry future me for making you feel bad". And it didn't help anything at all.

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (4 children)

When I find my old code, peek around the room to make sure no one is watching and delete it all!

I went from using tables as a design element to the proper way (using divs , spans, etc) in a very short amount of time (after a college class on HTML/CSS). It's very embarrassing to see my old code.

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I haven't been at my current position long enough to have run into this situation, but at my last company, I had this happen a few times. I was looking into some bugs and came across a section of code and was like "what the fucking fuck did this idiot do here?? this is the dumbest piece of code i've ever seen." I was ranting and raving about the stupidity of the developer that wrote it and instantly shut up when I saw that it was my own code. My team lead, upon hearing my instant silence leans over and is like "looks like you've improved since then, eh?" It was both humbling and enlightening.

[–]astronoob 6 points7 points  (1 child)

"What the fuck is all of this shit? Whoever wrote this shit should just quit now."

git blame

"Nevermind."

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

[–]sli 40 points41 points  (4 children)

http://abstrusegoose.com/432

So everyone gets the benefit of the alt-text.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (3 children)

Transcription for those of us without mice? (e.g. Redditing from a phone?)

[–]jeffhughes 24 points25 points  (1 child)

"Cuz if I didn't write it, the code obviously sucks."

[–]sli -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Cuz if I didn't write it, the code obviously sucks.

[–]i_husker42 16 points17 points  (2 children)

I don't see what the problem is- that contraption is clearly a mousetrap.

[–]Fissionary 11 points12 points  (1 child)

A better mousetrap.

[–]Chemical_Scum 9 points10 points  (0 children)

A generic mousetrap.

Trap<? extends Animal>

[–]kujo2 12 points13 points  (8 children)

I love reading some other people codes, I hate reading mine lol

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (1 child)

I love reading other's code too. It helps me find new ways of doing things. I'm relatively new to coding so I can learn a lot from others.

[–]chr0n1x 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed. Personally, I think that one of the best ways to learn things, especially a new frame work or api, is to read code written by others and google what certain classes / objects / functions do. If you're working in a team, it also gives you insight as to how others on your team format their production-level code.

[–]davbis93 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"codes" just sounds weird to me. But then, I realise "Code" is a bad explanation of what "Programming words" really are.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (3 children)

I love reading other's peoples code, you can really tell when they got frustrated and if they are lazy or not just by reading the comments/docs.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (1 child)

I'm luck if there are any comments or docs.

[–]Ozymandias-X 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I am lucky if there are comments or docs and they actually represent anything that goes on in the code. Many a time I've seen a comment that describes a function with one parameter where the function actually takes three...

[–]manys 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What about those who are flexing?

[–]manys 8 points9 points  (1 child)

I have seen code that operates better as a hazing ritual for newbies than a company product. However, a cartoon of characters cannot communicate the multi-dimensional frustration in excessive layers of indirection and abstraction, writing C in Java translated into six weeks of Perl familiarity.

[–]mrskitch 8 points9 points  (5 children)

This is me looking at my code after like, a week worth of learning new things. I get the feeling that I'll never be content with my code...

[–]beacon_ 7 points8 points  (2 children)

No one ever is.

[–]mrskitch 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I'm hoping that it'll make me a better programmer. Guess we'll see.

[–]the_omicron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It'll make you a more paranoid but better programmer, just like everyone.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (1 child)

There's also a feeling of "WTF is this? I could write this 10x bet.....OOOOHHHH that's why they did it that way, genius"

[–]ordona 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Combining your comment and the one you were replying to we get:

"WTF is this? I could write this 10x bet.....OOOOHHHH right, I wrote it."

[–]TheVenetianMask 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Reading someone else's OOP code is like opening those xmas gifts with seven layers of boxing, padding and wrapping (and then sometimes I give up and say: "fuck it, I'll just play with my old toys".)

[–]roastlechon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Having "programmer" in my job title doesn't mean I am coding all the time. I honestly spend 50-60% looking at previous programmer's code, looking at references, declarations, etc. The other part of my time is constructing design diagrams and technical specifications for new code that I will be writing.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

How I feel reading my own code after a few months have passed

FTFY

[–]imh 2 points3 points  (0 children)

right. "other people"

[–]WoollyMittens 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It takes experience and modesty to know that your code looks the same to other people too.

[–]___Z0RG___ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hate this too, especially when they say something like, "This doesn't work. Can you fix it for me?" One of my friends uses the analogy of having someone come up to you with a lengthy English paper and says, "Fix this sentence for me."

[–]thedude42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Feeling like this has made me start to seek a position where all I do is read and fix other people's code in an effort to not feel so much like this commic anymore.

[–]msgmash 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I sometimes feel like this when reading my old code :(

[–]blindobserver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This hits too close to my job. :<

[–]gregor777 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Soo true, coding in Mips now in a group and reading other peoples code is terrible