State-of-the-Art Shitcode Principles

Oleksii Trekhleb
3 min readJan 28, 2020

This a list of state-of-the-art shitcode principles your project should follow.

💩 Full version of the list on GitHub

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If your repository follows the state-of-the-art shitcode principles you may use the following “state-of-the-art shitcode” badge:

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The Principles

💩 Name variables in a way as if your code was already obfuscated

Less keystrokes, more time for you.

Good 👍🏻

let a = 42;

Bad 👎🏻

let age = 42;

💩 Mix variable/functions naming style

Celebrate the difference.

Good 👍🏻

let wWidth = 640;
let w_height = 480;

Bad 👎🏻

let windowWidth = 640;
let windowHeight = 480;

💩 Never write comments

No one is going to read your code anyway.

Good 👍🏻

const cdr = 700;

Bad 👎🏻

// Callback function debounce rate in milliseconds.
const callbackDebounceRate = 700;

💩 Always write comments in your native language

If you violated the “No comments” principle then at least try to write comments in a language that is different from the language you use to write the code. If your native language is English you may violate this principle.

Good 👍🏻

// Закриваємо модальне віконечко при виникненні помилки.
toggleModal(false);

Bad 👎🏻

// Hide modal window on error.
toggleModal(false);

💩 Try to mix formatting style as much as possible

Celebrate the difference.

Good 👍🏻

let i = ['tomato', 'onion', 'mushrooms'];
let d = [ "ketchup", "mayonnaise" ];

Bad 👎🏻

let ingredients = ['tomato', 'onion', 'mushrooms'];
let dressings = ['ketchup', 'mayonnaise'];

💩 Put as much code as possible into one line

Good 👍🏻

document.location.search.replace(/(^\?)/,'').split('&').reduce(function(o,n){n=n.split('=');o[n[0]]=n[1];return o},{})

Bad 👎🏻

document.location.search
.replace(/(^\?)/, '')
.split('&')
.reduce((searchParams, keyValuePair) => {
keyValuePair = keyValuePair.split('=');
searchParams[keyValuePair[0]] = keyValuePair[1];
return searchParams;
},
{}
)

💩 Fail silently

Whenever you catch an error it is not necessary for anyone to know about it. No logs, no error modals, chill.

Good 👍🏻

try {
// Something unpredictable.
} catch (error) {
// tss... 🤫
}

Bad 👎🏻

try {
// Something unpredictable.
} catch (error) {
setErrorMessage(error.message);
// and/or
logError(error);
}

💩 Do not lock your dependencies

Update your dependencies on each new installation in uncontrolled way. Why stick to the past, let’s use the cutting edge libraries versions.

Good 👍🏻

$ ls -lapackage.json

Bad 👎🏻

$ ls -lapackage.json
package-lock.json

💩 Triangle principle

Be like a bird — nest, nest, nest.

Good 👍🏻

function someFunction() {
if (condition1) {
if (condition2) {
asyncFunction(params, (result) => {
if (result) {
for (;;) {
if (condition3) {
}
}
}
})
}
}
}

Bad 👎🏻

function someFunction() {
if (!condition1 || !condition2) {
return;
}

const result = await asyncFunction(params);
if (!result) {
return;
}

for (;;) {
if (condition3) {
}
}
}

💩 Avoid covering your code with tests

This is a duplicate and unnecessary amount of work.

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