The shittiest project I ever worked on • Hacker News Board

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#71

Post by filpen » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:32 AM UTC

paulhauggis wrote: post #40

The shittiest project I ever worked on was a php project that was converted from another language (I don't remember which one). This doesn't sound bad, except they used software to automatically convert it. The PHP code had no comments, minimal white space, and the variables were all hex. My job was to fix bugs. I worked there for about a week before I quit in frustration.

Damn, it reminds me of one of the projects I worked on, a .NET Winforms project with about 2 MLOC.

It was the result of automatically porting a codebase written with a RAD system called Gupta Team Developer / SQLWindows[1]. The original language supported multiple inheritance and the converted code was a huge mess of tangled interfaces trying to reproduce that. The tool generated lots of duplicated code and some monster constructs like a static class with 140.000 lines of code, with all public methods.

I still weep for my colleagues who were left to tame that mess.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gupta_Technologies

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#72

Post by weavie » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:33 AM UTC

josephagoss wrote: post #48

paulhauggis wrote: post #40

The shittiest project I ever worked on was a php project that was converted from another language (I don't remember which one). This doesn't sound bad, except they used software to automatically convert it. The PHP code had no comments, minimal white space, and the variables were all hex. My job was to fix bugs. I worked there for about a week before I quit in frustration.

How can someone suggest auto convert into another language like that? In the long run it would be cheaper rebuilding the entire thing.

I once worked on a project that was auto converted from VB6 -> C#. Amazingly it compiled and parts of it actually ran.

We still rewrote the entire thing, line by line and then spent months refactoring it. It was our only choice really, so much of the original code was so unclear and all the original developers had left so it was our only hope of keeping the business logic intact.

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#73

Post by Daniel_Newby » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:33 AM UTC

adamconroy wrote: post #64

AndyKelley wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced. Care to make a case?

Well it is really just semantics, so there is no right or wrong, and anyone can define what particular words mean to them. But there are a couple of things that make me personally think software engineering is a misnomer. Firstly, traditional engineering disciplines are generally pretty black and white. It is applied maths and science. If you build a bridge, you can use physics and maths to pretty much prove that it…

The distinctions you are making are mere tendencies. Automotive engineering, for instance, requires everything on your list of software development traits—in spades.

I would say that the essence of engineering is a devotion to verifying that the design works like you think it works. Software development often lacks this devotion, but when it is there it is entirely proper to call it software engineering.

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#74

Post by n00b101 » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:44 AM UTC

This is how life insurance companies operate on a daily basis. OP had a pretty shitty deal but he should count his lucky stars that he didn't have to interact with actuaries, who would have multiplied the same problems ten-fold.

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#75

Post by donquichotte » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:47 AM UTC

I am working on quite a tedious project right now. It involves 10 years old, quite extensive, Visual Basic 6 programs. No source control was used. In our company it is practice to hire interns for 3-month periods to work on production software. A mix of programming styles can be found in this project. Some functions return 0 when they fail. Others return 1. Or -1. Or False. Or "False". I love it!

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#76

Post by chii » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:56 AM UTC

greenyoda wrote: post #34

redact207 wrote: post #12

Although it's a fun read, it's a classic example of diving into coding without giving a project it's due diligence. There's nothing that's derailed my projects more consistently when I started out as not understanding the user's needs. They'll never tell you what they want, only what they don't want after you deliver something. I think that's the key difference to an experienced dev/BA. One who can actually sit with…

"One who can actually sit with the stakeholders and build the system on paper and go through each of the problems as the diagrams connect." Reminds me of an old saying: "If you don't know how to do it, you don't know how to do it on a computer."

heh true, but what about if you were going to use a neural network to do some sort of pattern recognition? You dont know how its done, but the computer does! :D

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#77

Post by chii » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 7:59 AM UTC

akg_67 wrote: post #66

nostrademons wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kinda ironic, but my girlfriend's business school classmates (most of whom are electrical, mechanical, or chemical engineers) seem to think that software engineers are at the top of the engineering totem pole. Something about being the only engineering subdiscipline that's paid what they're worth. If it's a scam, it seems to be working.

As a former chemical engineer, I agree with your gf's classmates. In late 90s, I was working on an advanced chemical manufacturing process control project with a team of software developers. I found out they were getting paid twice as much as me and they were half as productive as me (they knew nothing about manufacturing, chemicals and process control) and I was twice as stressed as them. The best decision I made wa…

lol, so what were those software engineers being paid for!?

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#78

Post by binarysolo » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 8:00 AM UTC

shailesh wrote: post #69

redact207 wrote: post #12

Although it's a fun read, it's a classic example of diving into coding without giving a project it's due diligence. There's nothing that's derailed my projects more consistently when I started out as not understanding the user's needs. They'll never tell you what they want, only what they don't want after you deliver something. I think that's the key difference to an experienced dev/BA. One who can actually sit with…

Kind of agree with you and OP, so let me add to the discussion with the caveat that YMMV etc. Some of these points may overlap with comments by fellow HNers in these threads. In any organization as a prospective customer, there are three forces at work that matter to a consultant: users, decision makers and finance folks. Ideally, the decision makers appoint a dedicated person (or team) who mediates users and finance…

Commenting to save this for myself (fellow consultant) -- thanks for the detailed list. :)

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#79

Post by chii » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 8:02 AM UTC

Daniel_Newby wrote: post #73

adamconroy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it is really just semantics, so there is no right or wrong, and anyone can define what particular words mean to them. But there are a couple of things that make me personally think software engineering is a misnomer. Firstly, traditional engineering disciplines are generally pretty black and white. It is applied maths and science. If you build a bridge, you can use physics and maths to pretty much prove that it…

The distinctions you are making are mere tendencies. Automotive engineering, for instance, requires everything on your list of software development traits—in spades. I would say that the essence of engineering is a devotion to verifying that the design works like you think it works. Software development often lacks this devotion, but when it is there it is entirely proper to call it software engineering.

i suppose there aren't very many software engineering fields (and most of them really are just computerized extensions of physical engineering).

That's why i call it software development, and i m a software developer.

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#80

Post by pgeorgi » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 8:10 AM UTC

chii wrote: post #76

greenyoda wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One who can actually sit with the stakeholders and build the system on paper and go through each of the problems as the diagrams connect." Reminds me of an old saying: "If you don't know how to do it, you don't know how to do it on a computer."

heh true, but what about if you were going to use a neural network to do some sort of pattern recognition? You dont know how its done, but the computer does! :D

now you have two problems... (because the NN will probably fail at the most inopportune moment and you have no idea to fix either the NN or your actual project)