XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: OFeem1987@teleworm.us   
      
   rbowman wrote this post by blinking in Morse code:   
      
   > On Fri, 2 Jan 2026 15:15:53 -0500, c186282 wrote:   
   >   
   >>    I *like* to make 'perfect' structuring that will handle anything, but   
   >>    at times there was time pressure to "make it work" and I could not   
   >>    spend days/weeks trying to get it 'just perfect'.   
   >   
   > We had a couple of programmers who tried to handle all possible   
   > eventualities. Typically the eventualities never evidenced or whatever the   
   > theoretical future does, leaving a very complex piece of code to do the   
   > task at hand.   
   >   
   > Solve tomorrow's problems tomorrow.   
      
       1 Thou shalt run lint frequently and study its pronouncements with   
         care, for verily its perception and judgement oft exceed thine.   
      
       2 Thou shalt not follow the NULL pointer, for chaos and madness   
         await thee at its end.   
      
       3 Thou shalt cast all function arguments to the expected type if   
         they are not of that type already, even when thou art   
         convinced that this is unnecessary, lest they take cruel   
         vengeance upon thee when thou least expect it.   
      
       4 If thy header files fail to declare the return types of thy   
         library functions, thou shalt declare them thyself with the   
         most meticulous care, lest grievous harm befall thy program.   
      
       5 Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all   
         arrays), for surely where thou typest ‘‘foo’’ someone   
         someday shall type ‘‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’’.   
      
       6 If a function be advertised to return an error code in the event   
         of difficulties, thou shalt check for that code, yea, even   
         though the checks triple the size of thy code and produce   
         aches in thy typing fingers, for if thou thinkest ‘‘it   
         cannot happen to me’’, the gods shall surely punish thee for   
         thy arrogance.   
      
       7 Thou shalt study thy libraries and strive not to re-invent them   
         without cause, that thy code may be short and readable and   
         thy days pleasant and productive.   
      
       8 Thou shalt make thy program’s purpose and structure clear to thy   
         fellow man by using the One True Brace Style, even if thou   
         likest it not, for thy creativity is better used in solving   
         problems than in creating beautiful new impediments to   
         understanding.   
      
       9 Thy external identifiers shall be unique in the first six   
         characters, though this harsh discipline be irksome and the   
         years of its necessity stretch before thee seemingly without   
         end, lest thou tear thy hair out and go mad on that fateful   
         day when thou desirest to make thy program run on an old   
         system.   
      
      10 Thou shalt foreswear, renounce, and abjure the vile heresy   
         which claimeth that ‘‘All the world’s a VAX’’, and have no   
         commerce with the benighted heathens who cling to this   
         barbarous belief, that the days of thy program may be long   
         even though the days of thy current machine be short.   
      
   --   
   But I always fired into the nearest hill or, failing that, into blackness.   
   I meant no harm;  I just liked the explosions.  And I was careful never to   
   kill more than I could eat.   
   		-- Raoul Duke   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)