Is anything in programming truly evil? [closed]

Question

So, there are a bunch of questions appearing asking is X evil, is Y evil.

My view is that there are no language constructs, algorithms or whatever which are evil, just ones which are badly used. Hell, if you look hard enough there are even valid uses of goto.

So does absolute evil, that is something which is utterly incompatible with best practice in all instances, exist in programming? And if so what is it? Or is it just bad programmers not knowing when something is appropriate?

Edit: To be clear, I'm not talking about things programmers do (such as not checking return codes or not using version control - they're choices made by bad programmers), I mean tools, languages, statements, whatever which are just bad...

Answer 1

1. Magic numbers.
2. Implicitness is inherently evil, and here's the reason why:

Answer 2

There is no true evil in programming.

<rant>

The reason so many people think that there are evil things is that it is pounded into their heads when they first take their programming classes. "Don't use goto! Always normalize your databases! Never, ever use multiple inheritance!" These are hammered in because these "evil" practices are so easily abused, not because they are inherently bad. There are so few uses of them that you can get away with saying "never" at first. What is truly evil is saying, "There is no reason to consider anything that is not a 'best practice'", because there is always a place where that very way is perfect.

</rant>

Answer 3

Guns dont kill people, people kill people.

In the same way, dev-tools are not evil, the things programmers do with them could be.

Answer 4

Is anything in programming truly evil?

Absolutely. Failure to use your brain and think about what you're doing and why you're doing it is the root of all programming evil.

Answer 5

Empty generic exception handlers i.e. :

catch(Exception ex)
{
}

I don't doubt that someone can give me a valid use case - but, to be honest, its going to be seriously creative... and at the very least you need an explanation.

Answer 6

Perhaps I can flip the question around, and ask if there is anything in programming that is absolutely and perfectly good? If you can't think of one thing (I know I can't), then the concept of evil is also just as muddy.

There are common behaviors that lead to mistakes, misunderstandings, and other general confusion--but to say that language feature X is inherently evil is to admit that you really don't understand the purpose of feature X.

There are common behaviors that can save a lot of heartache and avoid some misunderstandings--but to say that language feature Y is inherently good is to admit that you don't fully understand all the implications of using feature Y.

We are a people of finite understanding, and strong opinions--a dangerous combination. Hyperbole is just a way of expressing our opinions, exagerating facts until they become fiction.

Nevertheless, if I can avoid behaviors that lead to problems and pursue behaviors that avoid them, I just might be a bit more productive. At the end of the day that's what it's all about.

Answer 7

The only thing that springs to mind is this:

#DEFINE TRUE FALSE
#DEFINE FALSE TRUE

But once again, that's just plain old misuse hehe.

Answer 8

I think skinning, auto-updaters that perpetually sit in the systray, applications that hijack file associations and other system settings, are straight evil.

Along with flash-only websites.

Answer 9

Everything that happens to work just by accident is inherently evil.

Let's consider the following C program, which happens to actually work on my machine, using default compiler options:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
   char string[10];
   int y;
   for (y=0; y<10; string[12]++) {
      printf("%d\n", y);   
   }
}

Nothing, really nothing could ever excuse the way this program increments the loop counter. It's just a undefined effect that happens to do the right thing on my machine, my compiler, my default options.

Answer 10

So does absolute evil, that is something which is utterly incompatible with best practice in all instances, exist in programming? And if so what is it?

Yes; the standard C library function gets(). It's evil enough that the C standards committee has officially deprecated it, and it is expected to be gone from the next version of the standard. The mayhem caused by that one library call is scarier than the prospect of breaking 30+ years' worth of legacy code -- that's how evil it is.

Answer 11

Easy, IBM Rational ClearCase is an atrocity.

Answer 12

So does absolute evil, that is something which is utterly incompatible with best practice in all instances, exist in programming?

Of course not. It's like asking if anything in my toolbox is evil. My hammer is a great "good" to me, unless my four year old gets her hands on it.

Answer 13

Today's evil was yesterdays perfect. It's evolution.

Answer 14

Not to be too serious, but ...

We have very myopic views of "evil". People who kill lots of other people are evil. People who steal from others are evil. Every nation (that I know of) has some evil in their past. Some would like to deny it.

Is there evil in programming? We innocent programmers might like to think "not really". However, once I had a conversation with the inventor of a widely-used hierarchical database, on this very subject. Want to know who was one of the best customers? The secret police of Communist Poland.

Is there evil in the world now? You bet. And are they using programmers? You bet.

Answer 15

Null is the root of Evil!

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/22912/null-references-the-billion-dollar-mistake-closed

The Billion Dollar Mistake: I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object oriented language (ALGOL W). My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by the compiler. But I couldn't resist the temptation to put in a null reference, simply because it was so easy to implement. This has led to innumerable errors, vulnerabilities, and system crashes, which have probably caused a billion dollars of pain and damage in the last forty years. In recent years, a number of program analysers like PREfix and PREfast in Microsoft have been used to check references, and give warnings if there is a risk they may be non-null. More recent programming languages like Spec# have introduced declarations for non-null references. This is the solution, which I rejected in 1965. C.A.R. Hoare, 2009

Answer 16

Copy-paste code.

If you don't itch when you are doing that, you are not a real programmer.

Answer 17

I personally find Donald Knuth's phrase: "premature optimization is the root of all evil" as the first evil thing in programming. In an expirienced point of view (that says that i have failed for this).

Actually, the phrase says something like: Don't try to understand the problem in a particular enviroment, particular PC or set of users before you get in deep into the problem.

Answer 18

I'm surprised no one has floated Globals as a true evil. No better way to be programming in an environment about which you have no idea of the parameters and virtually no control over what happens to them. Chaos! I have a strict ban on the use of global variables in all of my coding.

Answer 19

No tool is inherently evil. Its existence may be utterly foolish for all but a single use case but that does not make it evil. It puts the onus of deciding the proper use on the programmer.

Answer 20

Well, I thought Microsoft is/was considered evil and now recently Oracle is the most evil thing in the world.

Answer 21

I know i said i wouldnt make a post but i'll write one answer. As much as everyone else says no there are no evils i'll say yes there are some absolute evils

Setjmp/LongJmp is pure evil.

Answer 22

Redundant code is very very evil.

Answer 23

What does the FAQ mean by "such and such is evil"?

It means such and such is something you should avoid most of the time, but not something you should avoid all the time. For example, you will end up using these "evil" things whenever they are "the least evil of the evil alternatives." It's a joke, okay? Don't take it too seriously.

Answer 24

Though any tool can be used for good and evil, some tools are evil because they often surprise programmers who don't use them frequently.

I consider the unsigned right shift operator (>>>) in Java evil (surprisingly improper) when working with integers that are shorter than 32 bit.

Say you have a byte b with value -1.

byte b = -1;  // binary: 1111 1111

The unsigned right shift operator shifts zeroes into the leftmost bits. So one assumes a shift by 7 to result in 1.

b >>>= 7;  // binary: 0000 0001 ?

But instead this operation does nothing at all. b is still -1.

Even all of the following 25 shifts do nothing:

byte b = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < 25; ++i) {
    b >>>= i;
    System.out.println(b); // always outputs -1
}

This happens because b>>>=7 roughly translates to

                                  1111 1111

1) the byte gets widened to a 32 bit int to make shifting possible
    1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111

2) the shift happens
    0000 0001 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111

3) the resulting int gets narrowed to a byte again
                                  1111 1111

---

You would have to replace

b >>>= i;

by

b = (b & 0xFF) >>> (i % 8);     // >> would also work this time

to make it work as 'expected'.

Answer 25

I'm gonna turn this around and say that while there's no absolute evil, there are tools and constructs which make it more plausible for our feeble humans with such a limited skull size to make mistakes than others.

So I'd say you could talk about the evilness of a construct based on how likely people are to make mistakes with it. Sure you can cut bread with a knife or with a chainsaw with blades as grip, but one is more likely to cause damage than the other, even though you may be able to pull it off with enough care.

Answer 26

Code in your native language (not English), write documentation in your native language. And then outsource the project to an Indian company.

That's evil for you!

P.S.: For the record, it happened, and the Indians didn't find it very funny.

Answer 27

I'm tempted to say continuations, but I think the correct answer is that there is no objective, absolute evil in programming. On the other hand, even the best tools can be abused.

Answer 28

Programming, per se, I think, is not inherently evil. However, programming is very often a social activity, and disrespecting those around you can be very evil. People often forget that most code is going to be shared with others; mostly read, sometimes written too. Be it open source, a product that a company is releasing, or a small piece of patching up a consultant is hired for, programs are going to be read.

That's half the reason why so many "considered harmful" articles exist, or why people say "never". Making life difficult for others is the very root of all evil. Isn't it?

Answer 29

Yes, there is plenty of evil to be had. For example:

Type1 variable1 = function12()
variable5 = variable1.myMethod(variable1+aGlobal);
variable2.otherMethod(anotherGlobal);

Answer 30

Increasing the total cost of the system for insufficient benefit. It could be too much copying and pasting, too complex an architecture, or using pricey but ineffective commercial products. Generally speaking all software techniques are aimed at reducing the total cost of a system, and if we end up with a overly expensive system then we have done wrong.