Blog

We all get to a point in the coding process where there needs to be “non-code” code. This does not have the same type of structure or verbiage as the construct of PHP, C# or anything else. This is our own little distinct code.

It may seem like I am talking about lol-catz, which I am not. This is the code we do inside of our code. It extends beyond the logic of the code, or hopefully it does. If your own little code defies all logic, then maybe the code will break hard one day. This code is our own little way of saying how we are putting the code together. This is the notes/documentation that we write (or fail to write), the variable naming convention, object/function naming, any user messages we write, and error trapping/error handling we do. And there is more, this is just a few of the things that we get to write our own “code”.

One of the funniest things for me to do is to go back and look at some of my very first code. I look at the documentation I did, and it is funny to read. Some of the things I actually am scratching my head wondering what I was meaning half the time. The variables have great names which only partially tell what they were supposed to be doing. And the best is looking at the old VB 6 code where the variables followed the Microsoft horrendous naming structure.

Why do I write this and not about real code? Because there will be a time that you will be on both sides, writing and reading, and before you get upset that the person previous to you did not know what they were doing, they probably did. They wrote their non-code code perfectly for them and may have even understood their words at one time. And as sure as that will happen, you will write something that someone else will come in and scratch their head and say “What?”

So take it all in stride. Laugh about it, decipher it, and go forward. There is not enough time in the day to sit and stew about bad code/bad documentation/bad variable naming/bad non-code code.

And next post, I really do promise I will write more about actual code.