71
esavier
7y

I've got a mini stroke today. My project ended and I got delegated elsewhere.

"It's going to be fine, it's c++, you will find yourself there"

Suspicious, it's a project everybody was staying out of as hard as they can. But hey, it's cool, how bad can it be? what can go wrong with that?

Reality was brutal, project that uses Boost C++ as framework and bjam as builder. Builds with a decent dose of luck, and only under special circumstances, only under one specific version of compiler. No docs, quartet of the code is in Fortran, just to use ancient lisp part which was second qarter. The most senior Dev around does not have idea how it all works. Also everything is inside one enormous try/catch block. Because of the reasons.

That's how people end up with severe alcoholism and meth addiction.

Comments
  • 12
    This sounds very like one of my dreams, specifically one of the dreams that make me wake up screaming.
  • 7
    @teadrinker
    You know this YouTube song?

    Hey, how you doing
    I am doing just fine
    I lied
    I am dying inside
  • 3
    @esavier I don't know it, but it sure as hell resonates. Must have a listen when I get home!
  • 8
    I saw "catch(Exception ex){...}" in the project I'm working on. I fixed it very professionally. I wrote "//TODO: Specify exception" above it.
  • 1
    A big trt/catch you say? Ha...
  • 1
    Actually C++ is great (if you are working with extremely skilled people) and boost is a must-have to every C++ project (if you manage to grok the template voodoo) and Lisp is pure awesomeness (if you value the extreme purity and favor it over a language that does not originate in the 70s).
    But bjam? Naah 😂
  • 2
    On the beight side, once you figure it out, you'll be indispensable. You can ask for a massive raise ;)
  • 1
    @daniel-kun
    Boost is must have? ooh by very least. It's not properly written, it's not properly tested, errors during compilation tells you shit, it's not guaranteed to be updated or not abandoned, and it's from release to release covered by standard. If you are not doing weird math things, c++17 is enough for everything, with full compiler support, and not weird hacks.

    Common lisp was great in it's time but not anymore. There is very little lisp can do right now what C can't.

    My problem is actually in linking all of those together with linker scripts... If you haven't tried yet, bring some antidepressants with you.q
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