Knee-deep in C++ s... code

Mar 01 2011

Author: Andrey Karpov

10. Fair election of candidates from parties TRUE and FALSE
9. Oh Lord, let the database always open - what is all that "frobnitz" for?
8. You'd better not do such things with Ctrl-V
7. A nice and detailed comment is a good thing! But correct code is better
6. Simple and smart
5. What if check fails at the first time...
4. Original sin of Basic
3. A loop to conceive the Tao
2. Well, where will this file go after all? That'll do
1. The first place goes to switch operator
Conclusions

Perhaps many of you know the site govnokod.ru. If not, I recommend those of you who think of themselves as programmers to visit it. Good mood is guaranteed!

This is how the site describes itself:

Found or squeezed out code you can't call fine, code you can't help laughing at? Do not rush at deleting or refactoring it - post it at govnokod.ru, let's laugh together!

I, due to my occupation, spend much time on meditation upon very diverse C++ code. So, as they say, I have just enough of that stuff stored up. I can't carry this anymore inside me. Excuse me, but I will share it with you too.

Here you are the Top 10 of the "best" code fragments I've collected recently. These samples have one significant difference from those collected at the site "Govnokod.ru". While many of those samples are taken from students' works and private little-known projects, my samples are taken from reputable sources. These are well known open-source applications and libraries. Everyone have been using these projects and libraries regularly for many years. I won't name them since I believe it's unethical: one especially beautiful code fragment you might encounter in some project doesn't mean the bad quality of the whole project.

10. Fair election of candidates from parties TRUE and FALSE

m_bTypeED = ( nCmd == nCmd ) ? TRUE : FALSE;

9. Oh Lord, let the database always open - what is all that "frobnitz" for?

wstring myDBFName;
...
printf("Cannot open database %s",myDBFName);

8. You'd better not do such things with Ctrl-V

fhead[11] = '\0';
fhead[12] = '\0';
fhead[13] = '\0';
fhead[13] = '\0';

7. A nice and detailed comment is a good thing! But correct code is better

/** Deletes all previous field specifiers. 
  * This should be used when dealing with clients that 
  * send multiple NEP_PACKET_SPEC messages, so only the last
  * PacketSpec is taken into account. */
int NEPContext::resetClientFieldSpecs() {
  this->fspecs.empty();
  return OP_SUCCESS;
} /* End of resetClientFieldSpecs() */

6. Simple and smart

flag = true;
flag = false;
// flag is not used further anywhere

5. What if check fails at the first time...

if(freeze||winfreeze||(mainmenu&&gameon)||(!gameon&&gamestarted)||
   (mainmenu&&gameon)||(!gameon&&gamestarted)||(!gameon&&gamestarted))

Note. gameon and gamestarted are common variables of the bool type.

4. Original sin of Basic

t.printf("%10.5f, %10.5f, %10.5f,\n%10.5f, %10.5f, 
          %10.5f,\n%10.5f, %10.5f, %10.5f)",
         m[0, 0], m[0, 1], m[0, 2],
         m[1, 0], m[1, 1], m[1, 2],
         m[2, 0], m[2, 1], m[2, 2]);

3. A loop to conceive the Tao

for (i = 0; i < num_tbl; i++) {
  *tbl++;
}

2. Well, where will this file go after all? That'll do

FILE *fp;
if (! (fp = fopen(filename, "wb")) == -1) {
  perror("opening image file failed");
  exit(1);
}

Note. This condition is always false thanks to two errors. Come on, find them, you pursuer of truth!

1. The first place goes to switch operator

switch(LOWORD(wParam))
  {
    case (IDOK || IDCANCEL):
      EndDialog(hDlg,TRUE);
      return(TRUE);
      break;
  }

Conclusions

Well, there is one conclusion as always: he who makes no mistakes, makes nothing. No developer, even a skillful one, is secure from even silliest errors.

#Cpp