This Daily WTF reminded me of a guy I used to work with who would use this pattern in every single function he wrote.

Public Const cSTRINGFOO As String = "foo"

Public Function Foo() As Boolean
    Dim ret As Boolean = False
    Try
        Console.WriteLine(cSTRINGFOO)
        ret = True
    Catch ex As Exception
        ret = False
        Throw New Exception("", ex)
    End Try
    Foo = ret
    Exit Function
End Function

I’m not sure what he was expecting to happen here, but there were some clues:

• Every function he wrote returned true or false to indicate that it had successfully completed without an exception.
• Every exception was wrapped in another, except where he forgot and swallowed the exceptions.
• He would always use constants for string literals, even if he only used the literal once (like above), and even if the constant was much longer than the literal.

Mind you, I discovered this self-imposed standard a while after he quit, so I never really got to the bottom of it.

Tags: .NET, Angry, Financial Industry, VB, WTF

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at 6:09 pm and is filed under .NET, Microsoft Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.