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The seven deadly coding sins: tabs, spaces, IDE wars, and array doom
CodeQuality Post #4007 · source on Telegram

The seven deadly coding sins: tabs, spaces, IDE wars, and array doom

Description

Vertical screenshot of a Quora-style post with a white background and black serif text. Heading reads, “What are the 7 deadly sins of programming?”. Beneath a small circular avatar, the author line shows “John Purcell, Creator of CaveOfProgramming.com” with update and view stats. The numbered list is intentionally contradictory: 1) Using spaces instead of tabs, 2) Using tabs instead of spaces, 3) Not using auto-formatting, 4) Using IDEs, 5) Not using IDEs, 6) Failing to learn C and C++, 7) Learning C or C++ instead of Java, followed by an eighth point “Overrunning the end of an array.” The humor pokes fun at perennial developer flame-wars over editor choice, formatting style, language superiority, and classic off-by-one bugs, illustrating how dogmatic rules can conflict and lead to real defects like buffer overruns

Categories

CodeQuality IDEs Editors Languages Bugs DeveloperExperience DX

Common Tags

TabsVsSpacesDebate DeveloperHumor IDEsAndTextEditors LanguageWars CodingHumor CodeQuality Java Cpp

Comments

36
Anonymous ★ Top Pick After two weeks debating tabs vs spaces, IDE purity, and whether C++ is a moral failing, the array overrun from bullet #8 quietly got root in prod - good thing the attacker kept our .editorconfig intact
  1. Anonymous ★ Top Pick

    After two weeks debating tabs vs spaces, IDE purity, and whether C++ is a moral failing, the array overrun from bullet #8 quietly got root in prod - good thing the attacker kept our .editorconfig intact

  2. Anonymous

    The real eighth deadly sin? Writing a list of seven deadly sins but including eight items because you forgot to bounds-check your own enumeration - proving that even when mocking buffer overflows, we're all just one off-by-one error away from becoming the very thing we satirize

  3. Anonymous

    A list of 7 sins with 8 entries - the author didn't just describe sin #8, he committed it, and in production no less

  4. Anonymous

    This post brilliantly captures the essence of senior developer discourse: we've spent decades arguing about tabs vs spaces and IDEs vs vim, only to realize the real deadly sin was the friends we made buffer overflow along the way. The author's masterstroke is listing contradictory positions as separate sins - a perfect metaphor for how every architectural decision is simultaneously the right choice and a career-limiting move, depending on which Slack channel you're in. The punchline about C++ schedules overrunning by five years hits different when you've actually been on those projects and watched Java rewrites take six

  5. Anonymous

    console.log to 'proper logging': Exchanging 2s prototypes for 2w ELK ceremonies - DX purgatory

  6. Anonymous

    Everything before #8 is theology; #8 is the SEV‑1 that wakes your SRE at 3am and resets your SLO

  7. Anonymous

    Funny how the first seven are perfectly load‑balanced bikesheds; the only thing that actually pages you is #8 - undefined behavior is gloriously editor‑agnostic

  8. @thisisluxion 4y

    this is golden

  9. Deleted Account 4y

    kinda bipolar

  10. @dontmindmehere 4y

    "I hate bipolar disorder. This is awesome!"

    1. Deleted Account 4y

      I think my bipolar friends would laugh and cry at that

  11. Aleksander 4y

    I follow these rules since my childhood and have no psychical disorder.

  12. dev_meme 4y

    Great

  13. @cptnBoku 4y

    Just what I expected

  14. @Infinitelineman 4y

    Damn this culture, instead of using word ' sarcasm ' they blame bipolar disorder.

    1. @RiedleroD 4y

      👍

  15. @cringle_flex 4y

    4. myself

    1. Deleted Account 4y

      5. C++

      1. @sylfn 4y

        10. base-6 counting system

        1. Deleted Account 4y

          But why?

          1. @sylfn 4y

            if you are a programmer then you are committing a deadly sin

            1. @SamsonovAnton 4y

              Maybe not, if you are using ternary computers - those with trits instead of bits. That is, with unbalanced ternary system, the number 6<base10> becomes a round number 20<base3>.

              1. @RiedleroD 4y

                not round, but ok

  16. @AmirhosseinDotZip 4y

    Are these contradicting or am I out of my mind?

    1. dev_meme 4y

      Very much yes

      1. @AmirhosseinDotZip 4y

        Which question are you saying yes to?

        1. @sylfn 4y

          They are contradicting

  17. @saidov 4y

    Noice

  18. @callofvoid0 4y

    what is bipolar disorder?

    1. @RiedleroD 4y

      where ppl go from extremely happy to extremely sad in very little time

      1. @CcxCZ 4y

        Manic and depressive respectively. While the manic states may manifest as cheerful-seeming hyperactivity and depression as sadness, that's far from the only way those can look like. And yes, they are usually fairly long periods. There are different personality disorders that have the stereotypical rapid mood swings as a symptom but bipolar is not it.

        1. @RiedleroD 4y

          aight then

      2. @callofvoid0 4y

        oops thats me

  19. @RiedleroD 4y

    yes, that's also a variant

  20. @callofvoid0 4y

    what is it standing for? Laugh my great tough fucking ass off for you?

  21. @callofvoid0 4y

    oh thanks

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