6 comments

  • tromp 16 minutes ago
    When code is a maze describes my 1988 IOCCC entry [1]

        char*M,A,Z,E=40,J[40],T[40];main(C){for(*J=A=scanf(M="%d",&C);
        --            E;             J[              E]             =T
        [E   ]=  E)   printf("._");  for(;(A-=Z=!Z)  ||  (printf("\n|"
        )    ,   A    =              39              ,C             --
        )    ;   Z    ||    printf   (M   ))M[Z]=Z[A-(E   =A[J-Z])&&!C
        &    A   ==             T[                                  A]
        |6<<27<rand()||!C&!Z?J[T[E]=T[A]]=E,J[T[A]=A-Z]=A,"_.":" |"];}
    
    [1] https://tromp.github.io/pearls.html#maze
  • jorisw 26 minutes ago
    Smart developers don’t write mazes.

    > In code, comments are our signposts

    No. Naming and good architecture are. Intuitive folder trees. Concise docs. Clear separation of concerns such that naming can suffice.

    The more comments you need to ‘map’ your code, the worse of a job you’ve done.

    • pyrale 1 minute ago
      > Smart developers don’t write mazes.

      You don’t choose what your forebears have written, though.

  • jarofgreen 52 minutes ago
    > Typically keep comments on a single line without line breaks — if a comment is useful, developers will scroll to read them, if it’s not they can easily scroll past it.

    Disagree. Personally that sounds like a massive barrier to reading the comment to me. Limited width column text is generally regarded as easier to read, make your comments easier to read. Especially as I probably have the code open in a limited width window, as that's what I expect from code.

    • someothherguyy 39 minutes ago
      What? You don't like horizontally scrolling 6000 columns to read something?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_folding

    • dozerly 48 minutes ago
      Who doesn’t have soft wrapping enabled in 2026? Line breaks are irrelevant
      • jarofgreen 30 minutes ago
        If line breaks really were irrelevant, the author wouldn't have felt the need to give a tip all around optimising line breaks.

        Personally, I would have hoped by 2026 we had better IDE's and tools for managing code in text files such that developers with different preferences for a number of characters in a column or things like how you display comments can be accommodated. Yet still teams end up arguing about what standard to use.

      • ezrabuenk 33 minutes ago
        I, in fact, do not have wrapping enabled in my IDE....
        • tacomagick 29 minutes ago
          You never wrote Java I see
          • xboxnolifes 19 minutes ago
            Java is why I don't have line wrapping enabled. It makes code unreadable when everything needs to be wrapped.
      • Lindby 40 minutes ago
        Soft like breaks in a code editor? That's insane
        • Cockbrand 35 minutes ago
          And so the war began.

          This is a bit like vim vs Emacs - everyone should be able to use their favorite setup, and the formatting should not get in the way of the engineer's preferences.

      • verdverm 43 minutes ago
        Who makes assumptions about how others do things in 2026? Line breaks are apparently relevant, review agents complain about them, soft breaks are super annoying for vim motion users, opinions are still like ani
  • monster_truck 8 minutes ago
    Once again I am asking, who is this person and why do they think they are qualified to tell me what's best?
  • jdw64 8 minutes ago
    Sounds good. I've lost count of how many mazes I've made. Just call me the Architect of the Labyrinth.