As someone who has inherited code like that, I would like to strangle the first programmer in the comic.
“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.”
I know him, for he is me.
The use of “would have” instead of “will have” is making my eye twitch…
Do you own the company or something?
Nope, just inherited a colleague’s codebase when they left. It’s years later and I still haven’t sorted it all out.
you should thank them for the long term employment
There’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution.
This is my workplace, but with literally everything, not just code.
Capitalism 101
Gotta make that line go up TODAY
Making it go up tomorrow is the next guy’s problem
It’s actually the company’s problem. They usually opt to add more debt though, rather that wade through the old stuff.
In the end, all software sucks and should be replaced as soon as possible. Code quality is a lie we tell ourselves so that we can sometimes be proud of our work. It’s usually the code we are most proud of that is the worst. Design patterns everywhere making the vode overly convoluted and “future proof”. The only future proofing that happens is that no-one will understand it, so they won’t change it. Trying to design for the future usually makes it harder in the future.
Technical debt
Don’t worry I’d post the code on linkedin and credit your profile
The company being successful probably wasn’t doing humanity any favors anyway