Decade-old WTF

Ross_Presser

A snippet from some code my predecessor left behind. File is dated 11/18/1994 03:51 PM; language is Clipper Summer '87 but it should be clear anyhow .. very basic-like. (nofc stands for "number of full cartons"; .t. and .f. are "true" and "false" literals)

<FONT size=+0><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #d3d3d3">            avgwgt = round(pounds / nofc,0)
            if pounds % nofc > 0
               left = .t.
               avgwgt = avgwgt + 1
               remain = pounds
               for x = 1 to nofc - 1
                  remain = remain - avgwgt
               next
            else
               left = .f.
            endif</FONT>
</FONT>

He's bright enough to use mod to test for divisibility, but then uses repeated subtraction ... dios mio.

Jacob_K

Eww. That "for" loop is sooo unsafe.

Blue

Hope there's a check that nofc > 0 somewhere before this...

Gil_Galad

If it were zero, though, you'd hit an exception in the first line and bounce out before being stuck in the loop.

If that's any better...

Jacob_K

You also have to remember that some programming languages don't throw
exceptions when something is wrong. They just silently ignore the
explosion that's happening and go about there business. I've restarted
my fair share of computers because of infinite loops caused by
programming such as this.

Ross_Presser

Hope there's a check that nofc > 0 somewhere before this...

As it happens, there was such a check. But Clipper is so verbose and, to my current eye, ugly, that I didn't want to inflict any more on you.

But, since you asked ... here's the block that enclosed the snippet I started with.

[code language="vb"]if nofc > 0
            avgwgt = round(pounds / nofc,0)
            if pounds % nofc > 0
               left = .t.
               avgwgt = avgwgt + 1
               remain = pounds
               for x = 1 to nofc - 1
                  remain = remain - avgwgt
               next
            else
               left = .f.
            endif
            select a
            for x = 1 to b->nofc
               append blank
               replace package_id with key
               replace serv_type  with 4
               replace cust_no    with substr(b->clubno,1,5)+"-"+substr(b->clubno,6,3)
               replace dest_code  with d->zip
               replace resident   with "N"
               if b->sendcode = "U"
                  replace pickup with 1
               else
                  replace pickup with 2
               endif
               replace reference  with h_jobno
               replace zone       with z
               replace weight     with avgwgt
               replace filler     with "000000000"
               replace dimwgt     with "     "
               replace oversize   with "N"
               replace addhandchr with " "
               replace value      with 0
               replace confirmtyp with "0"
               replace handling   with 0
               replace cod_amt    with 0
               replace cash_only  with "N"
               replace name       with d->name
               replace atten      with d->address1
               replace street     with d->address2
               replace city       with d->city
               replace state      with d->state
               replace phone   with transform(d->phone,"(999) 999-9999")
               replace zip      with d->zip
               key = key + 1
            next
            if left
               replace weight with remain
            endif
         endif[/code]</FONT>

brandonh6k

I haven't had to look at Clipper code in about 6 years... Now I remember why I don't like it... [:P]

loopback0

Two decade old ?

Arantor

One decade old. Presumably a remnant of the import.