> I recently had to help with some code with really outlandish variable and > field names. > <cfset mawkishbbt = GNOME.barakish> (not really, but a good paraphrase)
I've been telling this story to students for I guess around ten years now. I've done quite a bit of work reviewing other people's apps, and suggesting improvements or fixing problems, etc. Once, I was hired by a company, that in the peak craziness of the dotcom era had bought some sort of forum for developers - kind of like StackOverflow in concept. Anyway, it was having performance and scaling problems once people actually started using it, and that's why they hired me. The app had been developed by a single person, who I was told lived in a shack in the woods and was very hard to reach, so I was never able to talk to him. Anyway, all the variables throughout the program were named after characters from "The Lion King". Of course, the program had nothing to do with the movie, I guess when you live in a shack in the woods writing code this is the kind of thing you do. I ended up having to write a "cast of characters" which mapped to what the variables actually did: Application.Simba - number of logged-in users ... I reported all this to the client, of course, but I don't know if the developer ever suffered any negative repercussions - other than being the butt of my jokes in the hundreds of CF classes I've taught since. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ http://training.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software is a Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) on GSA Schedule, and provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers, online, or ons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:351632 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
