While I'll be the first to admit that many (perhaps most?) developers (present company included) have a tendency to quickly conclude that other people's code su

While I'll be the first to admit that many (perhaps most?) developers (present company included) have a tendency to quickly conclude that other people's code sucks (at least they do at some point in their careers), I have to disagree with the idea that there is no such thing as code that genuinely sucks. I've read a lot of code in my lifetime, and some of it genuinely sucks. There is a such thing as a bad developer. There are people doing programming who really have no talent for it, or for some other reason are just really bad at it. Sometimes it is due to lack of experience. Sometimes it is due to the person not caring at all. And I am sure there are plenty of other reasons. It doesn't mean that a person can't get better, often they can get much better, but people do write code that sucks. Understand, I think I am now much slower to be harsh toward other people's code than I used to be. In fact, I regularly give people the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because I've worked for that megalomaniac that wants done yesterday what can't possibly be done in a month's time. You know, the one that thinks that because his work consumes his entire life, and causes him to neglect his family and other responsibilities, so should yours. I've worked in multiple high-pressure situations, where no one cares what the code looks like, as long as it is done tomorrow. And you know what? Sometimes in situations like that people slap together whatever they can (as fast as they can) with duct tape and chewing gum, whatever it takes to get that unreasonable person (or people) off of their back. The results are often ugly, and you can argue whether the person could have done it better in the same (or even less) time. But I think it is worth cutting the other guy some slack. Thankfully, I no longer work for the megalomaniac (and haven't for many years) :-D However, getting back to my original point, there is code that sucks. It may not be as prevalent as some think that it is, but believe me, it is out there (even after giving the other guy the benefit of the doubt). Geez, what's up with me and the parenthetical kick today (perhaps I've been writing too much Scheme code recently). :-) <- got one last one in there.