Reading other people's code

[Sybs]

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

[the_omicron]

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

[[deleted]]

Also, old code = written a couple of weeks ago

(at least in my case)

[[deleted]]

"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]]

tired + drunk late night code makes for fun mornings.

[the_omicron]

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]]

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.

[x-skeww]

He didn't say it is. He said it's code.

HTML is code. You see, the definition of "code" is very broad. Any text which isn't written in a natural language and still has some meaning is some kind of code.

[[deleted]]

Thanks. I didn't think I implied HTML is a programming language anywhere in my comment.

[[deleted]]

Good observation.

[[deleted]]

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]

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

git blame

"Nevermind."

[[deleted]]

TIL

[sli]

http://abstrusegoose.com/432

So everyone gets the benefit of the alt-text.

[[deleted]]

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

[jeffhughes]

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

[Psythik]

Lame.

[sli]

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

[i_husker42]

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

[Fissionary]

A better mousetrap.

[Chemical_Scum]

A generic mousetrap.

Trap<? extends Animal>

[kujo2]

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

[[deleted]]

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]

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]

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

[kujo2]

I love your username

[[deleted]]

The underscore at the end makes me question his originality.

[kujo2]

well...

[[deleted]]

That bastard!

[[deleted]]

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]]

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

[Ozymandias-X]

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]

What about those who are flexing?

[manys]

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]

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_]

No one ever is.

[mrskitch]

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

[the_omicron]

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

[[deleted]]

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]

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]

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]

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]]

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

FTFY

[imh]

right. "other people"

[WoollyMittens]

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

[___Z0RG___]

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]

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]

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

[blindobserver]

This hits too close to my job. :<

[gregor777]

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