The Whiteboard

user55340

12:24 AM

When I see people linking to the meta posts / essays I write, it gives me a warm fuzzy. Especially when the people aren't gnat (~~I've gotten lots of warm fuzzies from him in the past~~... that just sounds wrong. Never mind). Today's warm fuzzy is brought to me by Jörg.

user55340

meta.programmers.stackexchange.com/a/7514/1352 — Jörg W Mittag 1 hour ago

durron597

2:08 AM

Fanatic. Finally.

user15026

Yay!

durron597

@AshleyNunn Ugh I missed a day on MSE Fanatic (it was way behind the Progs and SO ones though)

user15026

@durron597 Arqade took me a while

user15026

I kept taking vacation and stuff in hte middle of it

durron597

@AshleyNunn Prior to this last push to Fanatic I usually missed at least one day on the weekend, most weekends.

user15026

2:12 AM

Being a mod has really kept me in hte loop (apparently I've not missed a day since like january)

user15026

(even with brain surgery)

user15026

(Being able to check on my phone helps)

durron597

I had pretty much given up on Fanatic until STCI

I have since lost steam on STCI but I only had like 10 days to go when that happened.

Robert Harvey

I think I finally figured out why it's so difficult to understand this system.

Almost all of the business logic is embedded in SQL statements.

durron597

@RobertHarvey Which are stored as strings in other database tables.

Robert Harvey

2:16 AM

Yes, exactly.

The vast majority of C# code and Interfaces are devoted to "engines" that interpret and execute the SQL.

And produce some result.

Which is why there are so many Interfaces that contain some sort of Execute method that return some sort of IResult.

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.

And all of the SQL in the strings is created via scripts of the form UPDATE someTable SET someField = SomeDecisionEnumValue, someOtherSetting = IsBlargh, and so on

It's the closest thing to an Inner Platform I've ever seen in production.

durron597

@RobertHarvey How much leeway do you have to try to refactor it into something more reasonable?

Robert Harvey

Did I mention they have scalability issues?

@durron597 Um. Well, I think some of their SQL is too complicated. There's a cache table that has a pruning SQL statement that has four joins in it.

All I'd have to do is add a DateCreated field to it, and I could get it down to zero joins.

durron597

@RobertHarvey Well, start by refactoring the sql.

Robert Harvey

That's what I think. There's some low-hanging (and some not so low-hanging) fruit there.

The architecture itself is pretty much set in stone. It might be better had they not had a cowboy working there for awhile.

Who had a rugged individualist mindset.

I suspect that some of these things were his doing.

durron597

@RobertHarvey Complete with a branding iron and spurs?

Robert Harvey

2:24 AM

Yes, and all that.

Because the lead architect is very smart. I've seen some of his newer code (written within the last couple of weeks), and it's very sensible.

Fortunately, I report to him directly.

So there may be some room for improvement. He's said as much.

durron597

@RobertHarvey I suspect then he's as irritated as you are, then.

Robert Harvey

Yeah, you could say that. :P

I only hope there's enough will to fix some of the technical debt. There's a whole lot to do in a fairly short period of time, and I have to figure out how to get good at this system in a hurry or some of it is not going to get done.

It's a bit shocking to see a system use all of the principles like Program to an Interface, not an Implementation, SRP, and so on, properly, but then find out that most of the responsibilities that should probably be relegated to classes are actually in these convoluted SQL statements.

Anyway, welcome to my world.

durron597

@RobertHarvey Maybe the programmer knew SQL really well but was fudging his C# knowledge

ratchet freak

or just knew enough to call SQL from C#

Robert Harvey

I think he got off on how clever it all is. Because it is really quite clever. Whether it is maintainable and scalable is another matter.

durron597

2:34 AM

@RobertHarvey Tangentially related: stackoverflow.com/questions/31665319/java-and-mongodb

I'm just amused that came up in a review queue concurrent with this conversation.

@RobertHarvey Is this really well obfuscated spam? stackoverflow.com/review/suggested-edits/8950902

I'm inclined to improve the edit to remove the citation.

Robert Harvey

I rejected it as "copied content."

(the reason the original reviewer gave)

durron597

Yeah, looking at his other posts, it's something he appears to do often - copy content and then link to it.

Which I suppose is better than copying content and not linking to it.

Gotta run, dinner time. Good luck with the SQL!

Robert Harvey

Gee, thanks.

overexchange

4:14 AM

hai

Nick Alexeev

7:43 AM

@GlenH7 You have mentioned FGITW the other day. Curiously, there is an exact equivalent abbreviation (albeit more obscene) in Russian web slang: первонах.

jane

8:44 AM

is anyone active here now?

Duga

11:19 AM

Questions about licenses are off-topic here, you would have better luck on Programmers, where it would probably be a duplicate. — Deduplicator 56 secs ago

Legal issues are off-topic. As it involves software licensing, Programmers might work though. — Deduplicator 39 secs ago

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