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From: fnf@riscokid.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Poor software (was '030 Ami vs '040 NeXT)
Message-ID: <14240@mcdphx.phx.mcd.mot.com>
Date: 12 Dec 90 15:51:11 GMT
References: <9012040257.AA10743@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <1990Dec5.233501.43949@cc.usu.edu> <1990Dec10.163711.19847@engin.umich.edu> <22109@well.sf.ca.us>
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Reply-To: fnf@riscokid.UUCP (Fred Fish)
Organization: Motorola Microcomputer Division, Tempe, Az.
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In article <22109@well.sf.ca.us> farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) writes:
>gilgalad@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ralph Seguin) writes:
>
>>Most certainly true.  Who says that UNIX code is all that sloppy?
>
>I do, for one.  Ever seen the Bourne shell source?

Not exactly an appropriate topic for comp.sys.amiga, but since when
has that stopped anyone...  :-)

Most of the absolutely worst C code I've ever seen has been in the course
of maintaining Unix utilities over the last eight years or so.  Try peeking
at the source to sdb or the COFF linker for example.  Before I actually
had a chance to see AT&T's source, I had envisioned that such an
elegantly designed system (compared to what I'd been working on) surely
had jewels of programming expertise that a newbie C program such as myself
could admire and learn from.  Imagine my shock and horror at finding
routines that ran on for hundreds of lines with all kinds of early
terminations, nesting of conditionials and switches a dozen levels deep,
sloppy typing of variables, etc.  Gack!

-Fred