9 ms·
Perhaps it makes me a killjoy, but generally if I see things like this in our codebase I think "Great! I get to remove code today!"
by misnome 9y ago
Perhaps it makes me a killjoy, but generally if I see things like this in our codebase I think "Great! I get to remove code today!"
- mmjaa 9y agoThat would be an appropriate response if you're reviewing newly-checked in code from junior developers, but this has been there for years and if you remove it, you're probably going to break things downstream .. there'd literally be nobody there to hear your prayer.
- mercer 9y agoI'm curious... how would you imagine this might break things downstream? FWIW I love this kind of stuff and if properly documented would rather work around it than remove it, but nobody relies on my code so what do I know :).
- mmjaa 9y agoExpect: a tool (from tcl/tk) used to write tests, whether we like it or not. Expect that "gimme gimme gimme" is a cheap way to determine if the tests are running after midnight, nor not. If so, do more extensive tests; if not, do less burdensome tests. I know - its lame. But, you cannot predict these things. If you don't want people to use your Easter egg for something, don't include it in the release.. ;)
- zulln 9y agohttps://xkcd.com/1172/ https://xkcd.com/1172/
- emodendroket 9y agoAs described it only worked if you run it at exactly half-past midnight.
- ng12 9y agoBecause dozens of junior engineers have encountered this error before. However, instead of posting on SE about it they added a branch to the test case if it was running after midnight, and at least one of them added an assert to verify the output was "gimme gimme gimme".
- oneeyedpigeon 9y agoI think if you're relying on the presence of an easter-egg in something you're using in production, you probably have bigger problems.
- whack 9y agoDon't forget the first rule of SW development. If a change results in user programs breaking, it's a bug. We never EVER blame the user programs. /s https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75 https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/75
- emodendroket 9y agoI might suggest that man and the kernel have a different relationship to user programs.
- wilun 9y agoThere is no reason the philosophy can't be the same.
- emodendroket 9y agoNo, but there also isn't any particular reason to think it should be.
- gadders 9y agoChesterton's Fence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton.27s_fence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton.27...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- theprotocol 9y agoProgrammer humor is really cringey. I fully expect to be downvoted for this comment (outside of our cringey humor, we tend to be rather humorless and thin skinned), but so be it.
- majewsky 9y agoMy downvote is not because of our collective sense of humor, but because I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor.
- theprotocol 9y agoSubcultures are a real thing. >I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor. Comedy shows appeal to more than a handful of people. Most humor only works collectively.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- criddell 9y ago> I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor You don't think there's any such thing as nerd culture?
- rootlocus 9y ago> You don't think there's any such thing as nerd culture? Nothing is ever black or white. I'm most certainly a nerd, but that doesn't mean I have the same sense of humor as every other nerd. Think of it like inheritance vs composition. Just because I'm a nerd, doesn't mean I inherit everything other nerds have. I only have some components. And while I appreciate Sci-Fi movies, I don't participate in wars between Star Wars and Star Trek (I think Stargate SG1 was better anyway).
- criddell 9y ago
- imtringued 9y agoAt the very least it's neither a hotpocket ad, doesn't load an entire dictionary to show the definition of a single word or contains a high resolution picture of guy fiery.
- digi_owl 9y agoI really worry when people voice glee about removing code, in particular code they themselves have not put in and may not know the full history off. It suggests to me that the person is perhaps not the best curator of the code base under their custody.
- phkahler 9y agoRemoving code is awesome and makes me happy. Sometimes it's hard to know for certain if it's OK to remove, but that illustrates the point. BTW I like to remove my own code too, assuming it's become obsolete or replaced. My joy in having a clean and performant present-day product trumps any feelings about past efforts and old code.
- emodendroket 9y agoFrom context it seemed that the kind of code we're talking about obviously served no real purpose. Most codebases where everyone is afraid to delete anything are unmanageable messes only comprehensible to people who have been working on them for years.
- wilun 9y agoWe have invented that really useful thing named version control to know about the history of code. If yours has commit messages not good enough to properly understand its history, fix that.
- emodendroket 9y agoYeah, I have never really felt like it was a good idea to commit stuff like that, or comments with profanity or jokes, or any of that stuff. Who wants to be in the position of explaining that if it breaks or your company gets sued or something?