#spaghetticode — Public Fediverse posts

😆 Oh, the sheer audacity of trying to prettify 25 million lines of spaghetti code overnight! 🎉 Congratulations to the brave souls who assumed this Herculean task could be as painless as a bedtime story. 😂 Spoiler alert: It wasn't.
https://stripe.dev/blog/formatting-an-entire-25-million-line-codebase-overnight-the-rubyfmt-story #spaghetticode #codecleanup #codingchallenges #developerhumor #overnighttask #HerculeanEffort #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, yes, the age-old quest of getting computers to understand what the heck we're typing. 🤔 Let's just throw some Pratt parsing at it and hope the computers don't start demanding royalties for untangling our spaghetti code. 🍝 Who knew #programming was just advanced tree gardening? 🌳
https://louis.co.nz/2026/03/26/pratt-parsing.html #spaghettiCode #treeGardening #PrattParsing #techHumor #codingChallenges #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, yes, the never-ending saga of Windows app development: a labyrinth of spaghetti code and a shrine to the ghost of Visual C++ past. 🎭 While our hero nostalgically reminisces about #.NET and Neopets cheats, we're left pondering if the real mess was the friends we made along the way. 🚀👾
https://domenic.me/windows-native-dev/ #WindowsDevelopment #SpaghettiCode #Nostalgia #VisualC++ #AppDev #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, yes, because what every Scheme programmer secretly dreams of is reintroducing the glorious chaos of GOTO—an "innovation" from the 1960s 🕰️. Forget elegant recursion and functional purity, let's smash in some spaghetti logic just for nostalgia's sake 🍝😂.
https://terezi.pyrope.net/ccgoto/ #SchemeProgramming #GOTO #Nostalgia #FunctionalProgramming #SpaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

💼🎲 Ah yes, the age-old wisdom that uploading your spaghetti code to GitHub will magically transform you into a coding wizard just because everyone can now see your "brilliance." 🙄 Apparently, luck is now measured by the number of pull requests you receive on your half-baked projects. 🍀✨
https://github.com/readme/guides/publishing-your-work #spaghetticode #codingwizard #pullrequests #luckinprogramming #halfbakedprojects #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, nothing screams "productive weekend" like cramming a mini C compiler for #ESP32 into 700 lines, because who doesn't want to debug more code on a microcontroller no one can spell? 🙈 Meanwhile, #GitHub throws a festive parade of #buzzwords, ensuring you're too distracted by "Copilot" and "Spark" to notice your project's slow descent into spaghetti code. 🍝
https://github.com/valdanylchuk/xcc700 #productiveweekend #Ccompiler #codingstruggles #spaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

Ah, setHTML(), the latest way to write spaghetti code with an MDN blessing! 🍝😆 Discover the wonders of web APIs while desperately trying to avoid actually understanding them 🔄🤯. A riveting read for those who love endless HTML lists and CSS babble! 📜💤
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/setHTML #setHTML #spaghettiCode #webAPIs #HTMLlists #CSSbabble #codingHumor #HackerNews #ngated

🧙‍♂️ Dive into the eternal abyss of outdated spaghetti, where "Legacy Code" is synonymous with "everything is on fire" 🔥. The article heroically suggests that a "First Aid Kit" can save the day, as if some duct tape can fix your dinosaur-era code. 📟 Remember folks, 2004 was a great year... for flip phones. 📞
https://understandlegacycode.com/blog/key-points-of-working-effectively-with-legacy-code/ #LegacyCode #SpaghettiCode #TechHumor #CodingStruggles #SoftwareDevelopment #HackerNews #ngated

🚀 Ah, yet another brave soul who claims they're unraveling the mysteries of hot code #loading to *finally* solve the age-old conundrum of monolithic apps. 🧙‍♂️ Somehow, they believe Elixir's magic can keep their spaghetti code coherent while dodging the oh-so-dreaded #microservices booby trap. 🤡 Spoiler alert: it won't.
https://lucassifoni.info/blog/leveraging-hot-code-loading-for-fun-and-profit/ #hotcode #monolithicapps #Elixir #spaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

👨‍💻 Oh, look! Another "expert" explanation on how #SCIM is the magical solution to untangle your #SaaS spaghetti 🍝. Spoiler alert: It's just an acronym parade to sell you on another API #integration that'll make your life "easier," like a fourth cup of coffee at 4 PM. ☕🔄
https://tesseral.com/blog/what-a-developer-needs-to-know-about-scim #APIExpertise #TechHumor #SpaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

Wow, groundbreaking news! 🎉 #GitHub now does *real-time* #splatting and paints pretty pictures with math—because everyone knows Gaussian blur was just too slow and you're definitely going to splat your way to software nirvana. 🙄 Meanwhile, they forgot to tell you: Splats won't fix your spaghetti code. 🍝
https://github.com/axbycc/LiveSplat #RealTime #GaussianBlur #SoftwareNirvana #SpaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

Wow, groundbreaking news! 🎉 #GitHub now does *real-time* #splatting and paints pretty pictures with math—because everyone knows Gaussian blur was just too slow and you're definitely going to splat your way to software nirvana. 🙄 Meanwhile, they forgot to tell you: Splats won't fix your spaghetti code. 🍝
https://github.com/axbycc/LiveSplat #RealTime #GaussianBlur #SoftwareNirvana #SpaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

Wow, groundbreaking news! 🎉 #GitHub now does *real-time* #splatting and paints pretty pictures with math—because everyone knows Gaussian blur was just too slow and you're definitely going to splat your way to software nirvana. 🙄 Meanwhile, they forgot to tell you: Splats won't fix your spaghetti code. 🍝
https://github.com/axbycc/LiveSplat #RealTime #GaussianBlur #SoftwareNirvana #SpaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

Wow, groundbreaking news! 🎉 #GitHub now does *real-time* #splatting and paints pretty pictures with math—because everyone knows Gaussian blur was just too slow and you're definitely going to splat your way to software nirvana. 🙄 Meanwhile, they forgot to tell you: Splats won't fix your spaghetti code. 🍝
https://github.com/axbycc/LiveSplat #RealTime #GaussianBlur #SoftwareNirvana #SpaghettiCode #HackerNews #ngated

🎉 Behold, the Holy Grail of Database Management: a single #PHP file! 🤯 Who needs stability, security, or readability when you can have this miraculous, spaghetti-coded, all-in-one monstrosity? 🍝💻 Remember, kids, because nothing says "reliable enterprise solution" like relying on a #GitHub repo to keep your database dreams alive. 🚀🤦‍♂️
https://github.com/vrana/adminer #DatabaseManagement #SpaghettiCode #EnterpriseSolutions #TechHumor #HackerNews #ngated

There’s one thing that consistently showed up in my work as a software engineer over the decades. Spaghetti.

Spaghetti code is easier to write than maintain, and in doing software archaeology (yes, it’s a thing), I’ve encountered numerous reasons for it. Requirements creep is one of the largest reasons.

In fact, the first real software archaeology I did was explained, proudly, as being a product of someone walking in and telling the developer, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Of course, nobody wrote anything down, and by the time I got to it the software was 25 years old and didn’t even have a brochure. People were still walking in and saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Meanwhile, the company was required to follow standard software processes because it was required for contracts.

So I learned, from good teachers and a few bad ones, about Software Configuration Management, Software Quality Assurance, and Software Testing. There were reasons we did things a certain way. Our project configuration management contained everything needed to rewrite the software from scratch, including every single tool. I’d actually done a backup of a development pc after writing down the hardware specifications of the system and handed that in because quality assurance had to be able to take the same stuff and rebuild the same software so that it could be tested.

From scratch. And it had to pass the same tests. From scratch.

What I saw in other companies after that was never at that level, and on the surface it seemed ridiculous. However, any software engineer worth their weight in skittles has been screwed over by a platform changing underneath the code. Windows was infamous for it, though I did encounter it in an Apple shop as well. Your code hasn’t changed, but some update suddenly had you in the middle of bug city without even a flip flop. Microsoft has been notorious about that, with their version back in the day called DLL Hell. It’s just their (old) version of dependency hell.

I never had the problem with *nix systems, though when open source became popular and everyone started using that in their code, *nix systems started to get it too. People blamed the open source, but it was really 2 things that caused the problem.

(1) Bad Configuration Management (if it even existed!) and
(2) Taking the open source project for granted.

Open Source projects that are done voluntarily are completely outside the control of a company, but having an open dialog and even sending some money for pizzas and beer can avoid issues. Even with all of that, volunteers are fickle, so having in house expertise on projects becomes as important as how important the projects are to a company’s software. A company doesn’t really know this, though, when they don’t have software configuration management for their projects – so you end up with spaghetti projects, or as I call it, “Spaghetti Configuration Management”.

Toss in the developers that are copying and pasting from Stack Overflow, or now GPT, dash in employee turnover, where expertise is lost, and you get software entropy. Talking about software entropy causes the eyes of pointy haired bosses to roll to the back of their heads, so instead we talk about technical debt, because one thing businesses understand is debt.

Over the years, companies I worked for were at various stages of technical debt. It’s a real thing, and the startups that survived long enough to get to the point of technical debt were the worst because of the culture shift needed: Documenting things, tracking things, and making sure that the knowledge stayed within the company. I can say with good conscience that I left every company better off than when I left it, sometimes because of the company, sometimes despite the company.

So we get to the article, “Hidden Tech Debt: The Importance Of Better Updates For Commercial Software“, which I came across through the author on Mastodon. It tackles the one thing I didn’t write about here: commercial software dependencies and lack of accountability in that, which is a bigger problem than we might think.

https://knowprose.com/2024/04/20/spaghetti-source-spaghetti-dependencies/

#dependencyHell #SCM #softwareArchaeology #softwareEngineering #softwareEntropy #softwareRot #spaghettiCode #SQA #technicalDebt #Technology

There’s one thing that consistently showed up in my work as a software engineer over the decades. Spaghetti.

Spaghetti code is easier to write than maintain, and in doing software archaeology (yes, it’s a thing), I’ve encountered numerous reasons for it. Requirements creep is one of the largest reasons.

In fact, the first real software archaeology I did was explained, proudly, as being a product of someone walking in and telling the developer, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Of course, nobody wrote anything down, and by the time I got to it the software was 25 years old and didn’t even have a brochure. People were still walking in and saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Meanwhile, the company was required to follow standard software processes because it was required for contracts.

So I learned, from good teachers and a few bad ones, about Software Configuration Management, Software Quality Assurance, and Software Testing. There were reasons we did things a certain way. Our project configuration management contained everything needed to rewrite the software from scratch, including every single tool. I’d actually done a backup of a development pc after writing down the hardware specifications of the system and handed that in because quality assurance had to be able to take the same stuff and rebuild the same software so that it could be tested.

From scratch. And it had to pass the same tests. From scratch.

What I saw in other companies after that was never at that level, and on the surface it seemed ridiculous. However, any software engineer worth their weight in skittles has been screwed over by a platform changing underneath the code. Windows was infamous for it, though I did encounter it in an Apple shop as well. Your code hasn’t changed, but some update suddenly had you in the middle of bug city without even a flip flop. Microsoft has been notorious about that, with their version back in the day called DLL Hell. It’s just their (old) version of dependency hell.

I never had the problem with *nix systems, though when open source became popular and everyone started using that in their code, *nix systems started to get it too. People blamed the open source, but it was really 2 things that caused the problem.

(1) Bad Configuration Management (if it even existed!) and
(2) Taking the open source project for granted.

Open Source projects that are done voluntarily are completely outside the control of a company, but having an open dialog and even sending some money for pizzas and beer can avoid issues. Even with all of that, volunteers are fickle, so having in house expertise on projects becomes as important as how important the projects are to a company’s software. A company doesn’t really know this, though, when they don’t have software configuration management for their projects – so you end up with spaghetti projects, or as I call it, “Spaghetti Configuration Management”.

Toss in the developers that are copying and pasting from Stack Overflow, or now GPT, dash in employee turnover, where expertise is lost, and you get software entropy. Talking about software entropy causes the eyes of pointy haired bosses to roll to the back of their heads, so instead we talk about technical debt, because one thing businesses understand is debt.

Over the years, companies I worked for were at various stages of technical debt. It’s a real thing, and the startups that survived long enough to get to the point of technical debt were the worst because of the culture shift needed: Documenting things, tracking things, and making sure that the knowledge stayed within the company. I can say with good conscience that I left every company better off than when I left it, sometimes because of the company, sometimes despite the company.

So we get to the article, “Hidden Tech Debt: The Importance Of Better Updates For Commercial Software“, which I came across through the author on Mastodon. It tackles the one thing I didn’t write about here: commercial software dependencies and lack of accountability in that, which is a bigger problem than we might think.

https://knowprose.com/2024/04/20/spaghetti-source-spaghetti-dependencies/

#dependencyHell #SCM #softwareArchaeology #softwareEngineering #softwareEntropy #softwareRot #spaghettiCode #SQA #technicalDebt #Technology

There’s one thing that consistently showed up in my work as a software engineer over the decades. Spaghetti.

Spaghetti code is easier to write than maintain, and in doing software archaeology (yes, it’s a thing), I’ve encountered numerous reasons for it. Requirements creep is one of the largest reasons.

In fact, the first real software archaeology I did was explained, proudly, as being a product of someone walking in and telling the developer, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Of course, nobody wrote anything down, and by the time I got to it the software was 25 years old and didn’t even have a brochure. People were still walking in and saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Meanwhile, the company was required to follow standard software processes because it was required for contracts.

So I learned, from good teachers and a few bad ones, about Software Configuration Management, Software Quality Assurance, and Software Testing. There were reasons we did things a certain way. Our project configuration management contained everything needed to rewrite the software from scratch, including every single tool. I’d actually done a backup of a development pc after writing down the hardware specifications of the system and handed that in because quality assurance had to be able to take the same stuff and rebuild the same software so that it could be tested.

From scratch. And it had to pass the same tests. From scratch.

What I saw in other companies after that was never at that level, and on the surface it seemed ridiculous. However, any software engineer worth their weight in skittles has been screwed over by a platform changing underneath the code. Windows was infamous for it, though I did encounter it in an Apple shop as well. Your code hasn’t changed, but some update suddenly had you in the middle of bug city without even a flip flop. Microsoft has been notorious about that, with their version back in the day called DLL Hell. It’s just their (old) version of dependency hell.

I never had the problem with *nix systems, though when open source became popular and everyone started using that in their code, *nix systems started to get it too. People blamed the open source, but it was really 2 things that caused the problem.

(1) Bad Configuration Management (if it even existed!) and
(2) Taking the open source project for granted.

Open Source projects that are done voluntarily are completely outside the control of a company, but having an open dialog and even sending some money for pizzas and beer can avoid issues. Even with all of that, volunteers are fickle, so having in house expertise on projects becomes as important as how important the projects are to a company’s software. A company doesn’t really know this, though, when they don’t have software configuration management for their projects – so you end up with spaghetti projects, or as I call it, “Spaghetti Configuration Management”.

Toss in the developers that are copying and pasting from Stack Overflow, or now GPT, dash in employee turnover, where expertise is lost, and you get software entropy. Talking about software entropy causes the eyes of pointy haired bosses to roll to the back of their heads, so instead we talk about technical debt, because one thing businesses understand is debt.

Over the years, companies I worked for were at various stages of technical debt. It’s a real thing, and the startups that survived long enough to get to the point of technical debt were the worst because of the culture shift needed: Documenting things, tracking things, and making sure that the knowledge stayed within the company. I can say with good conscience that I left every company better off than when I left it, sometimes because of the company, sometimes despite the company.

So we get to the article, “Hidden Tech Debt: The Importance Of Better Updates For Commercial Software“, which I came across through the author on Mastodon. It tackles the one thing I didn’t write about here: commercial software dependencies and lack of accountability in that, which is a bigger problem than we might think.

https://knowprose.com/2024/04/20/spaghetti-source-spaghetti-dependencies/

#dependencyHell #SCM #softwareArchaeology #softwareEngineering #softwareEntropy #softwareRot #spaghettiCode #SQA #technicalDebt #Technology

There’s one thing that consistently showed up in my work as a software engineer over the decades. Spaghetti.

Spaghetti code is easier to write than maintain, and in doing software archaeology (yes, it’s a thing), I’ve encountered numerous reasons for it. Requirements creep is one of the largest reasons.

In fact, the first real software archaeology I did was explained, proudly, as being a product of someone walking in and telling the developer, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Of course, nobody wrote anything down, and by the time I got to it the software was 25 years old and didn’t even have a brochure. People were still walking in and saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if…”. Meanwhile, the company was required to follow standard software processes because it was required for contracts.

So I learned, from good teachers and a few bad ones, about Software Configuration Management, Software Quality Assurance, and Software Testing. There were reasons we did things a certain way. Our project configuration management contained everything needed to rewrite the software from scratch, including every single tool. I’d actually done a backup of a development pc after writing down the hardware specifications of the system and handed that in because quality assurance had to be able to take the same stuff and rebuild the same software so that it could be tested.

From scratch. And it had to pass the same tests. From scratch.

What I saw in other companies after that was never at that level, and on the surface it seemed ridiculous. However, any software engineer worth their weight in skittles has been screwed over by a platform changing underneath the code. Windows was infamous for it, though I did encounter it in an Apple shop as well. Your code hasn’t changed, but some update suddenly had you in the middle of bug city without even a flip flop. Microsoft has been notorious about that, with their version back in the day called DLL Hell. It’s just their (old) version of dependency hell.

I never had the problem with *nix systems, though when open source became popular and everyone started using that in their code, *nix systems started to get it too. People blamed the open source, but it was really 2 things that caused the problem.

(1) Bad Configuration Management (if it even existed!) and
(2) Taking the open source project for granted.

Open Source projects that are done voluntarily are completely outside the control of a company, but having an open dialog and even sending some money for pizzas and beer can avoid issues. Even with all of that, volunteers are fickle, so having in house expertise on projects becomes as important as how important the projects are to a company’s software. A company doesn’t really know this, though, when they don’t have software configuration management for their projects – so you end up with spaghetti projects, or as I call it, “Spaghetti Configuration Management”.

Toss in the developers that are copying and pasting from Stack Overflow, or now GPT, dash in employee turnover, where expertise is lost, and you get software entropy. Talking about software entropy causes the eyes of pointy haired bosses to roll to the back of their heads, so instead we talk about technical debt, because one thing businesses understand is debt.

Over the years, companies I worked for were at various stages of technical debt. It’s a real thing, and the startups that survived long enough to get to the point of technical debt were the worst because of the culture shift needed: Documenting things, tracking things, and making sure that the knowledge stayed within the company. I can say with good conscience that I left every company better off than when I left it, sometimes because of the company, sometimes despite the company.

So we get to the article, “Hidden Tech Debt: The Importance Of Better Updates For Commercial Software“, which I came across through the author on Mastodon. It tackles the one thing I didn’t write about here: commercial software dependencies and lack of accountability in that, which is a bigger problem than we might think.

https://knowprose.com/2024/04/20/spaghetti-source-spaghetti-dependencies/

#dependencyHell #SCM #softwareArchaeology #softwareEngineering #softwareEntropy #softwareRot #spaghettiCode #SQA #technicalDebt #Technology