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"Don't surprise me". The best code doesn't make you double-take when you're reading it.


Thanks for making that so succinct. I can't count the number of times I've run into code like that. I used to have scorn for devs that handed code over like that but I've since turned around to thinking that this is mostly due to time crunches. Maybe something worked and then it didn't so they hacked in something and moved on. Also I have the benefit of seeing this for the first time and not glossing over it with a mental "oh yeah that junk, let me get to the next issue" So my advice would be like the scouting / camping / hiking saying of leave it better than you found it.


Ah the "WTF per minute" metric.




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