Syndromes of Forgotten Programmers

Quanto mais você cospe linhas de código (e inevitavelmente, acaba esbarrando nas linhas de código cuspidas por outros desenvolvedores mundo afora), mais percebe como pessoas diferentes pensam diferente - e acabam por criar software que reflete suas mentes (maníacas, complicadas, pouco criativas, preguiçosas...). As "síndromes de programador" são tão comuns que deveriam ser ensinadas em faculdade.

The Rube Goldberg Syndrome
Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist famous for incredibly complex solutions to life’s simpler problems. His programming counterparts never tire of demonstrating to everyone what incredibly complex and talented programmers they are...even in simple situations that don’t call for it.

The Mother Hen Syndrome
Mother Hens have a bad case of nesting instinct, at least when it comes to IF..THEN..ELSE constructs. I recently had to debug a program with 14 levels of nested IFs. These probably do not occur as often as they seem. It’s just that if over-nested IFs exist in a program a debugging trail generally leads to them.

The Garbage Collector Syndrome
Garbage Collectors are incapable of deleting a line of code, no matter how useless or obsolete it might be. The programs they work on resemble mazes, full of commented-out code and unused modules. Imagine what these programs will be like in another 10-20 years!

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