There are a some things in your comment that give me the impression that your opinions are too strong for your experience.
99% of codebases are bad. It’s the baseline condition. It’s our job everyday to slowly make them better.
I’m extremely picky about what comments are allowed to make it into the codebase since the majority of comments I see are wrong, outdated, obvious and riddled with typos.
I think it’s very easy to complain about bad code when really the best thing to do is just suck it up and fix things.
It took me 15+ years in the business to realize this. If someone gave you a time machine to go into the past and give me your exact comment AND punch me in the face, it still wouldn't have dawned on me because I was in pursuit of some weird perfection that doesn't exist.
Thanks for spreading sanity and insight -- I hope someone else digests your message sooner than I did.
> It’s our job everyday to slowly make them better.
Why? If 99% of code bases are bad and it's the baseline condition, why should I try to move things in a better direction?
OP proposed better coding practices and got ignored. OP proposed adding some automated lint checking, etc, and got mocked for it. OP is trying to make things better, and will suffer for it. OP comes to HN and doesn't get any better reception for his ideas either.
I think OP should hold on to his opinions and make sure his resume is up to date.
> Why? If 99% of code bases are bad and it's the baseline condition, why should I try to move things in a better direction?
Code is like entropy: it's natural tendency is to become disordered and not suit the current problem domain.
In order to fight entropy, you need to perform the unnatural act of ordering back and sorting out the code you wrote based on your current understanding of the curremt state of your problem domain.
Also keep in mind that developers continuously gain experience, and gather insight into what works or not, and refine their expertise with time. Your yesterday's code is worse than the code you'd write today. By definition this means that when you look at all the code you wrote, it all needs improving.
> OP proposed better coding practices and got ignored.
He didn't. He proposed wasting time adding comments and dump onto someone else the responsibility of cleaning up his mess. That is not helpful and should be laughed out of the room.
