rbowman wrote this post by blinking in Morse code:
On Fri, 2 Jan 2026 15:15:53 -0500, c186282 wrote:
I *like* to make 'perfect' structuring that will handle anything, but
at times there was time pressure to "make it work" and I could not
spend days/weeks trying to get it 'just perfect'.
We had a couple of programmers who tried to handle all possible eventualities. Typically the eventualities never evidenced or whatever the theoretical future does, leaving a very complex piece of code to do the
task at hand.
Solve tomorrow's problems tomorrow.
1 Thou shalt run lint frequently and study its pronouncements with
care, for verily its perception and judgement oft exceed thine.
2 Thou shalt not follow the NULL pointer, for chaos and madness
await thee at its end.
3 Thou shalt cast all function arguments to the expected type if
they are not of that type already, even when thou art
convinced that this is unnecessary, lest they take cruel
vengeance upon thee when thou least expect it.
4 If thy header files fail to declare the return types of thy
library functions, thou shalt declare them thyself with the
most meticulous care, lest grievous harm befall thy program.
5 Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all
arrays), for surely where thou typest ??foo?? someone
someday shall type ??supercalifragilisticexpialidocious??.
6 If a function be advertised to return an error code in the event
of difficulties, thou shalt check for that code, yea, even
though the checks triple the size of thy code and produce
aches in thy typing fingers, for if thou thinkest ??it
cannot happen to me??, the gods shall surely punish thee for
thy arrogance.
7 Thou shalt study thy libraries and strive not to re-invent them
without cause, that thy code may be short and readable and
thy days pleasant and productive.
8 Thou shalt make thy program?s purpose and structure clear to thy
fellow man by using the One True Brace Style, even if thou
likest it not, for thy creativity is better used in solving
problems than in creating beautiful new impediments to
understanding.
9 Thy external identifiers shall be unique in the first six
characters, though this harsh discipline be irksome and the
years of its necessity stretch before thee seemingly without
end, lest thou tear thy hair out and go mad on that fateful
day when thou desirest to make thy program run on an old
system.
10 Thou shalt foreswear, renounce, and abjure the vile heresy
which claimeth that ??All the world?s a VAX??, and have no
commerce with the benighted heathens who cling to this
barbarous belief, that the days of thy program may be long
even though the days of thy current machine be short.
--
But I always fired into the nearest hill or, failing that, into blackness.
I meant no harm; I just liked the explosions. And I was careful never to
kill more than I could eat.
-- Raoul Duke
--- PyGate Linux v1.5.2
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)