Digging
posted on april 3, 2003, tag: work
Today I spent about four hours digging through code. There was a bug in this code. There were several bugs in this code. Actually, there were lots of bugs in this code. Making matters worse: I did not write this code. Making matters even worse: the person who did is a fucking moron. Also: it's ASP code.
It's this seven step form for a client who runs this annual contest. People come, they use the form, they nominate someone. It's a seven step form. Seven. So, why, dear Jesus, are there 80 files? Why? 80 files! Seven steps! It's ridiculous. Digging through 80 files to find a single bug is like trying to find a certain rock in a pile of stupid fucking rocks.
When I found (and fixed) the problem, more problems cropped up. A lot more. And so, for four hours, I hunted them down, one at a time. Eventually I got them all. This is one of the worst parts of developing for the web—dealing with other peoples' messes. It's disgusting. 80 files!
Comments
There are 4 comments, comments are closed
sean on 04/04/2003:
heh... sounds like a few projects i've had to look at over the years. it really is mind boggling how badly things can get put together.
Jen on 04/18/2003:
And you don't even get that glow of satisfaction from a job well done, just this sinking feeling that you cleaned up someone else's shit.
I was a web developer in my past incarnation (working with ASP, ironically). Now I'm a technical writer. I like it much better. I don't have anyone else's poo to clean up.
Garrett on 05/01/2003:
That's true—now you just have to document others' poo. Still, not as bad, eh?
Jen on 05/01/2003:
Gee...when you put it that way...
...now I'm all depressed. ;)
It is about other peoples' poop, in the end. (ha! pun!) Right now I'm trying to document poop that's not even "fully baked" yet. I just love that term, everyone around here uses it. "Is that feature baked yet?" "We need to have 'foo' fully baked by this date."
(asterisks indicate sarcasm in this case)