The website http://worsethanfailure.com, a fun read with daily
stories about "WTF?" moments in programming and IT, ran a programming
contest called the "Olympiad of Misguided Geeks at Worse Than
Failure," or "OMGWTF." The goal was to write a GUI calculator
program in the most over-engineered, convoluted way possible. Full
details of the challenge are here: http://forums.worsethanfailure.com/
forums/thread/119538.aspx
To start with, the required language was C++, ensuring that
programmers will have "more than enough rope to hang not only
yourself, but the poor end user who runs your calculator." From
there, imaginations went wild and the 12 finalists are linked here:
http://worsethanfailure.com/Articles/OMG-Finalist-Week-Conclusion--
Voting.aspx
Every one of those entries is an absolute gem, many taking client-
server architecture and application reuse principals to obscene
levels of insanity. Some of my favorites are #6, with the plain
English config file syntax for drawing UI elements, and #9 which took
the idea of mimicking real world interfaces way too far.
Some of the submissions are Windows apps, others are GTK/X11. All
have code and compiled examples available. I'm posting this to this
list because I'm sure everyone here can appreciate it. :)
--
Joshua Penix http://www.binarytribe.com
Binary Tribe Linux Integration Services & Network Consulting
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
