The Code Is Offscreen

I opened a file with C code. I expected you know, the regular stuff, includes, functions, etc. Instead the first line was already a statement, followed by 5k lines of statements. There was a huge function that had to be split in no less than three separate files and then pulled in with #include directly into function body. These were #included in multiple other places, for greater obfuscation effect. I opened another file (this time .NET), still same application, though... I jumped with my editor into middle of roughly 25k LoC of code... to be faced with empty screen. A bit surprised, I started dragging the scroll bar and then suddenly the code started showing on the right side of the screen... There was a span of roughly 15k LoC that was indented so much it was off the screen.

A programmer describes opening badly organized C and .NET code: thousands of statements, bizarre use of #include, and extreme indentation that pushes the code off-screen. The joke is that the code is so chaotic and obfuscated that even navigating to the middle appears to show nothing, until scrolling reveals it far to the right. This is shared as a reaction to horrifying legacy code or nightmare software projects. EN: A programmer describes opening badly organized C and .NET code: thousands of statements, bizarre use of #include, and extreme indentation that pushes the code off-screen. The joke is that the code is so chaotic and obfuscated that even navigating to the middle appears to show nothing, until scrolling reveals it far to the right. This is shared as a reaction to horrifying legacy code or nightmare software projects.

• @gentoomemes / 12925 2024-08-22