programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood
Let's face it: we all write bad code.
But not every programmer does something about the bad code they're polluting the world with, day in and day out. There's a whole universe of possibilities:
But that's a lot of work. Really freaking hard work! Wouldn't it be nice if you could do something a bit simpler and easier to, just … say … offset the bad code you're producing?
Well, now you can -- with Bad Code Offsets.
I am a proud member of the Alliance for Code Excellence, and this is our vision:
We envision a world where software runs cleanly and correctly as it simplifies, enhances and enriches our day to day work and home lives. Mitigating the scope and negative impact of bad code on our jobs, our lives and our world is our all-consuming passion. We foresee a time when bad coding practices and their rotten fruits have been eliminated from this earth and its server farms thereby heralding a new age of software brilliance and efficacy.Nettlesome bugs and poorly written code have been constant impediments towards realizing our full potential as programmers and engineers. Bad Code Offsets provides the vehicle for balancing the scales of poor past practice while freeing us to pursue current excellence in code development. Until the dawn of the worldwide, bug free code base, each of us can take steps towards reducing our bad code footprint and remediate the bad code that we have each individually and collectively left behind on the desktops, servers and mainframes at school, at work and at home.
Yes, this is partly tongue in cheek, but we aren't just doing it for the lulz. Bad code offsets cost real money, because the Alliance has a goal:
Q: Where does my money go?A: The proceeds from the sale of Bad Code Offsets are donated to various worthy Open Source initiatives that are carrying the fight against bad code on a daily basis. These organizations include:
This is the awesome part: the money you spend on Bad Code Offsets really does offset bad code!
All the money spent on bad code offsets goes directly to open source projects that actively make programmers' lives better. For every ten thousand lines of mind-bendingly bad code produced, we hope to subsidize a thousand lines of quality open source code.
So, please -- buy bad code offsets today. It is, quite literally, the least you could do.
Talking about open source, do you still endorse Paint.NET now that it has officially gone closed source: http://blog.getpaint.net/2009/11/06/a-new-license-for-paintnet-v35/ ?
Fred on November 23, 2009 7:14 AMThis is prohibitely expensive even for my "small" hobby projects dude.
MaxDZ8 on November 23, 2009 9:51 AMI've seen too many people who are blatantly incompetent at their primary job function (all types, not just programming) and clearly don't care to think that this would have a chance. A vast majority of people who read this blog are not in the group of lazy incompetent surfers, and a vast majority of lazy incompetent surfers couldn't be bothered to read anything as long as this blog.
Foozinator on November 23, 2009 10:36 AMHow many lines of code in SUN Java?
JustKickstart on November 23, 2009 10:43 AMThank you for your blog, I always get some helpful insights from it.
geld lenen on November 25, 2009 4:42 AMAnything to make a buck,...
gunther on November 25, 2009 6:23 AMs/envision/envisage/
Repeat for all the writing from all the business classes.
And you may want to read the day-care example from Freakonomics (read online free, here: http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/b56592/Freakonomics-Revised-and-Expanded-Edition/Steven-D-Levitt/?si=0) before you start letting people pay money for doing something they shouldn't :)
Rob on November 25, 2009 7:49 AMYour next step in ruining our industry Jeff (IT in case you forgot). I can't wait to your empire collapses.
anonymous on November 25, 2009 9:46 AMI'm sorry to say this, but I think codinghorror.com just jumped the shark for me.
It was an interesting read, I wish you luck in your future writing endeavours. Time to move onto other blog-shaped pastures.
Rob on November 26, 2009 9:49 AMCould be an amusing secret santa gift...:-)
Code Buddy on November 26, 2009 10:01 AMheh again no posts and last five posts were not so fun anymore as few years ago
heh okay I see SO.com takes all the energy. Although I miss quality content.
second on November 27, 2009 1:52 AMI don't think you know what "for teh lulz" means...
nst on November 27, 2009 2:54 AMSpeak for yourself, Jeff. Not everybody writes bad code. Everybody makes mistakes and sometimes bugs find their way into our software regardless of the quality of the code. To claim that we all write bad code seems more like you justifying bad code you've written by placing the blame on all of us.
Dave on November 27, 2009 8:22 AMShame on you Jeff, Shame
Richard on November 27, 2009 10:52 AMnst> "Everybody makes mistakes and sometimes bugs find their way into our software regardless of the quality of the code."
That's what bad code is; code that contains mistakes and bugs. Do you have a different definition?
I don't believe in quality of open source, especially not if the site of opensource server developers was hacked multiple times.....
sunfire on November 29, 2009 9:20 AMthe captcha "buy viagra" should be part of your "anti ad" advertising site
sunfire on November 29, 2009 9:24 AM"That's what bad code is; code that contains mistakes and bugs. Do you have a different definition?"
Bad code is code written without regard for safety, clarity, accuracy or efficacy. This is generally due to incompetence but it can also be the result of carelessness or simply not caring about quality. Even code written by the most competent programmer in the world may show bugs due to unforseeable consequences. Software can be extremely complicated. All test cases cannot be foreseen ahead of time.
If you want to call this "bad code" then that's fine. How do we distinguish between bad code that is just awfully written and bad code that is due to a rare mistake in logic or unforseeable interactions between software elements (including the user)? Are these the same thing? I don't think so. It's the difference between a virtuoso musician playing the wrong note in rare cases and a beginning musician playing the wrong note due to inexperience or incompetence.
Dave on November 29, 2009 9:29 AMSelling absolution? Didn't the catholic church try that at some point (think back)? It gave me the same lulz.
agit8d on November 29, 2009 10:25 AMIt amazes me that there are that many people who read this blog who have absolutely NO sense of humor. Come on people!
Zann Anderson on November 30, 2009 2:58 AMI would be more enthused if the code I'd be offsetting would be public domain. Not GPL. Not BSD. Public domain. Let's help *everyone*.
Kenny on November 30, 2009 7:07 AMAh, but who will be your Martin Luther?
FWHagen of orange on November 30, 2009 7:44 AMThis is interesting, what about people who write bad code for other open source projects? I will check it out though.
Helen Neely on November 30, 2009 11:07 AMI think..the main point is missing and you are concentrating on funny part of it.
John on December 1, 2009 2:16 AMI think you are concentrating on funny part instead of real thing about bad coding
John Rice on December 1, 2009 2:19 AMSpeak for yourself, Jeff. Not everybody writes bad code. Everybody makes mistakes and sometimes bugs find their way into our software regardless of the quality of the code.
no true
Раскрутка сайтов on December 1, 2009 5:31 AMyes indeed, I liked it a great subject too great a share, thanks
Dans Okulu
The frequency and value of your posts are declining.
I once urged coworkers to read this blog. Today, when talking about the fold, I mentioned that Coding Horror recently had an article about the fold. A coworker said that he has not looked at Coding Horror in a while. My response was, "Don't bother. That site has really gone downhill."
I was surprised at how honest that statement felt.
Kevin on December 2, 2009 8:58 AMActually, I don't think tool is the reason of bad code.
It blongs to coder self.
No. I don't want to give any money to those organizations.
Mal on December 2, 2009 10:49 AMGood informaton!
Anonymous on December 2, 2009 11:24 AMThanks a lot.Good idea...
hikayeler on December 2, 2009 12:55 PMSame here, I would not donate.
Schnaeppchen on December 3, 2009 3:02 AMI would not donate for that.
Schnaeppchen on December 3, 2009 3:04 AMThis isn't new. The following is from 1997 or earlier:
"We should sell 'bloat credits', the way the government sells
pollution credits. Everybody's assigned a certain amount of
bloat, and if they go over, they have to purchase bloat credits
from some other group that's been more careful."
-- Bent Hagemark
There's actually a very easy way to avoid writing bad code which I've seen very effectively practised at my workplace. The solution is to write no code at all, and either let other people do all the work (who then also have to do all the fixing) or let the end users scream in anguish.
Not only do you save money on buying bad code offsets, you also save time which you can spend on surfing the web. What more can one ask for?
SL on December 3, 2009 7:34 AMI tried to run this past my client but they turned it down... :-(
Steve on December 3, 2009 11:43 AMCould be a mess at all. If you write lots of bad code, you're going to need that extra money down the road to fix or just maintain your own mess, which you might otherwise send to a worthy cause such as bad code offsets.
If you don't mind me saying that but I don't think people would like to donate any amount for this type of organisation...
Casus Telefon on December 3, 2009 12:18 PMI can't belive that you could say this ''A coworker said that he has not looked at Coding Horror in a while. My response was, "Don't bother. That site has really gone downhill." ''
verici tespit cihazı on December 4, 2009 2:20 AMIm really starting to think Jeff is a f******* scammer with all these little sites he's creating. I love this one:
"Patron Members' financial contributions enable The Alliance to develop and support not-for-profit initiatives like Bad Code Offsets. An annual membership is currently $50.00; as a thank-you for contributing, we will mail you a black T-shirt with our logo."
For f**** sake, a 1 dollar hanes t-shirt is being sold by Jeff Atwood for $50. What a nut case. Then I read about the members involved and even Jon Skeet is in. What gives, you guys go find a damn job and stop begging for money.
Weasles.
Joe on December 7, 2009 7:26 AMRight next to atwood in the dictionary in big bold letters is the word PONDSCUM
Joe on December 7, 2009 7:29 AM"Yes, this is partly tongue in cheek...," is such a pathetic attempt to disguise how this is a despicable idea.
My interpretation is, "Yes, I realize how obnoxious and worthless this project is and how closely it resembles an internet scam. However, I am not entirely serious. If you are credulous enough to believe in this, then yes, I am serious. If you are offended by this idea, then default back to the tongue in cheek line (psst, it's my safety line)."
Kevin on December 7, 2009 8:33 AMI would definitely consider donating to FOSS projects (& I have actually donated in the past), but not on the basis of my own code quality. What if I didn't know my code was bad? Should I just buy enough credits for every single line in the project? Who would pay, me or my employer?
John Ferguson on February 6, 2010 11:22 PMI see supposedly smart people missing the point and focusing on the joke about bad code instead.
Aaron on February 6, 2010 11:22 PM"For every ten thousand lines of mind-bendingly bad code produced, we hope to subsidize a thousand lines of quality open source code."
Does that mean for every $10k you get from code offsets only $1k goes towards open source?
Please tell me that is not so, otherwise you are basically clearing peoples bad code guilt in exchanges for your own personal profit!
Jon C on February 6, 2010 11:22 PM"It is, quite literally, the least you could do."
No, lierally the least I could do is nothing. Which seems about right.
Anon on February 6, 2010 11:22 PMThis is another hideous project by Jeff Atwood. Trying to make more money cause he does not want to find a real job. Jeff stop sitting on your a** and find a job and stop begging for money.
Jon on February 6, 2010 11:22 PMLulz, memes are like dead jokes, except funnier because everyone repeats them all the time.
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Also except that memes are absolutely pointless and very rarely funny. But back onto topic; as a programmer, knowing that I sometimes write bad code is simply frustrating, so I can express sympathy here. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.
Harry Dresden on January 24, 2011 12:33 PMThe comments to this entry are closed.
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