unmaintainable code : Java Glossary

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woodpecker  unmaintainable code

Introduction

This is my most popular essay. It is amazing how many people don’t realise it is tongue in cheek
woodpecker If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
~ Gerald Weinberg (1933-10-27 age:84) Weinberg’s Second Law
Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.
~ Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-08-15 1821-05-05 age:51)
General Principles Testing The Shoemaker Has No Shoes
Naming Choice of Language Contributors
Camouflage Dealing With Others Operation Termite
Documentation Roll Your Own
Program Design Tricks In Offbeat Languages Links
Coding Obfuscation Miscellaneous Techniques
Ambiguity Philosophy
This essay has been like rock candy, seed the string with sugar, soak in sugar water, soon it grew out of control.

In the interests of creating employment opportunities in the Java programming field, I am passing on these tips from the masters on how to write code that is so difficult to maintain, that the people who come after you will take years to make even the simplest changes. Further, if you follow all these rules religiously, you will even guarantee yourself a lifetime of employment, since no one but you has a hope in hell of maintaining the code. Then again, if you followed all these rules religiously, even you wouldn’t be able to maintain the code!

You don’t want to overdo this. Your code should not look hopelessly unmaintainable, just be that way. Otherwise it stands the risk of being rewritten or refactored.

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Copyright

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book cover recommend book⇒AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures and Projects in Crisisto book home
by William J. Brown, Raphael C. Malveau, Hays W. (Skip) McCormick, Thomas J. Mowbray 978-0-471-19713-3 paperback
publisher Wiley 978-0-471-19713-3 hardcover
published 1998-03-20 B000U5M2EM kindle
This is an amusing book that looks at what goes wrong in software development.
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