The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Divine Comedy

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2025-08-07

"Code should be clear and explain what it does, comments should explain why it does that." This aphorism is a decent enough guideline, though like any guidance short enough to fit on a bumper sticker, it can easily be overapplied or misapplied.

Today, we're going to look at a comment Salagir wrote. This comment does explain what the code does, can't hope to explain why, and instead serves as a cautionary tale. We're going to take the comment in sections, because it's that long.

8 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-08

A Dropped Down DataSet

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-08-06

While I frequently have complaints about over-reliance on Object Relational Mapping tools, they do offer key benefits. For example, mapping each relation in the database to a type in your programming language at least guarantees a bit of type safety in your code. Or, you could be like Nick L's predecessor, and write VB code like this.

For i As Integer = 0 To SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows.Count - 1
     Try 'Handles DBNull
         Select Case SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(0)
             Case "Bently" 'Probes
                 Probes_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Keyphasor"
                 Keyphasor_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Transmitter"
                 Transmitter_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Tachometer"
                 Tachometer_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim.ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Dial Therm"
                 DialThermometer_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "DPS"
                 DPS_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Pump Bracket"
                 PumpBracket_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Accelerometer"
                 Accelerometer_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
             Case "Velometer"
                 Velometer_Combobox.Items.Add(SQLDataset.Tables(0).Rows(i).Item(1).ToUpper.ToString.Trim)
         End Select
     Catch
         'MessageBox.Show(text:="Error during SetModelNums().", _
         '                caption:="Error", _
         '                buttons:=MessageBoxButtons.OK, _
         '                icon:=MessageBoxIcon.Error)
     End Try
Next

16 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-09

An Annual Report

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-08-05

Michael has the "fun" task of converting old, mainframe-driven reports into something more modern. This means reading through reams of Intelligent Query code.

Like most of these projects, no one has a precise functional definition of what it's supposed to do. The goal is to replace the system with one that behaves exactly the same, but is more "modern". This means their test cases are "run the two systems in parallel and compare the outputs; if they match, the upgrade is good."

19 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-09

Concatenated Validation

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-08-04

User inputs are frequently incorrect, which is why we validate them. So, for example, if the user is allowed to enter an "asset ID" to perform some operation on it, we should verify that the asset ID exists before actually doing the operation.

Someone working with Capybara James almost got there. Almost.

14 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-07

What a CAD

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-07-31

In my career, several times I've ended up being the pet programmer for a team of engineers and CNC operators, which frequently meant helping them do automation in their CAD tools. At its peak complexity, it resulted in a (mostly unsuccessful) attempt to build a lens/optics simulator in RhinoCAD.

Which brings us to the code Nick L sends us. It sounds like Nick's in a similar position: engineers write VB.Net code to control their CAD tool, and then Nick tries desperately to get them to follow some sort of decent coding practice. The result is code like:

17 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-07

Going on a teDa

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-07-30

Carlos G found some C++ that caused him psychic harm, and wanted to know how it ended up that way. So he combed through the history. Let's retrace the path with him.

Here was the original code:

12 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-06

IsValidToken

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-07-29

To ensure that several services could only be invoked by trusted parties, someone at Ricardo P's employer had the brilliant idea of requiring a token along with each request. Before servicing a request, they added this check:

private bool IsValidToken(string? token)
{
    if (string.Equals("xxxxxxxx-xxxxxx+xxxxxxx+xxxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxxxx+xxxxx", token)) return true;
    return false;
}

14 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-06

An Exert Operation

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2025-07-28

The Standard Template Library for C++ is… interesting. A generic set of data structures and algorithms was a pretty potent idea. In practice, early implementations left a lot to be desired. Because the STL is a core part of C++ at this point, and widely used, it also means that it's slow to change, and each change needs to go through a long approval process.

Which is why the STL didn't have a std::map::containsfunction until the C++20 standard. There were other options. For example, one could usestd::map::count, to count how many times a key appear. Or you could use std::map::findto search for a key. One argument against adding astd::map::containsfunction is thatstd::map::count basically does the same job and has the same performance.

28 comments - Last comment @ 2025-08-06