Quotes to share among software developers

I have been migrating a functionality from VB6 to .Net code. Tasks like this can be tricky. Normally, the original developer is no longer around left behind him/her a piece of code with no documentation about the business rules - they are hidden gems to be discovered.

I started reading the code. Anyway, the code is the best documentation a developer can have. The frustrating bit is that the main method printed out to be 5 double sided A4 pages. FIVE double sided pages of code for a single method! Every time I see code like this, I want to cry it out - could you mighty developer have some sympathy towards those who end up maintaining your great piece of work? Could you at least cut it into shorter methods with meaningful names (function names and variable names)?

Quotes like the following should be shared among developers. Something I'd love to remind myself from time to time so that people who picks up my work later won't want to kill me. I admit that sometimes I couldn't understand my own code in couple of months time, but I promise that I won't write a single method lasts for pages and pages ;).

Always code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
-- [source]

... nearly everybody is convinced that every style but their own is ugly and unreadable. Leave out the "but their own" and they're probably right...
--Jerry Coffin (on indentation) [source]

If you need more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix your program.
--Linux 1.3.53 CodingStyle documentation [ source]

It's OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn't need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.
--Steve McConnell [ source]

If the code and the comments disagree, then both are probably wrong.
--attributed to Norm Schryer  [source]


If you have a procedure with ten parameters, you probably missed some.
--[source]
 
Why do we never have time to do it right, but always have time to do it over?
--Anonymous [ source]

Computers are high-speed idiots, programmed by low-speed idiots
-- [source]

How to move a borderless window

I had to display a warning message sitting on top of all other windows. I created a borderless form and pinvoked a windows API function in my C# code to achieve this.

However, I found that I couldn't move the borderless window using the mouse. The border actually responds to all resize and position messages. To move a borderless window, the following is needed.

Two API methods:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool ReleaseCapture();

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, int wParam, int lParam);

Handle the mouse down event in the borderless window:
private const int WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN = 0xA1;
private const int HT_CAPTION = 0x2;
 private void borderlessWindow_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
  {
            if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Left)
            {
                ReleaseCapture();
                SendMessage(this.Handle, WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN,  (IntPtr)HT_CAPTION, IntPtr.Zero);
            }
 }

SQL Error Severity and Level Cheat Sheet

Sometimes I have to raise errors manually inside a stored procedure. It will be handy to have an error severity cheat sheet.

Code	Description
1 - 9	Informational messages/warnings.
10	N/A. @@ERROR won't be set.
11 - 16	Regular programming errors. Level 16 is not more serious than 11
11	Specified Database Object Not Found
12	Unused
13	User Transaction Syntax Error. E.g. deadlock.
14	Insufficient Permission
15	Syntax Error in SQL Statements
16	Miscellaneous User Error
17	Run out of a configurable resource, such as locks
18	Nonfatal internal software problems
19	Nonconfigurable resource limit has been exceeded
20	An error with a statement issued by the current process
21	SQL Server has encountered a problem that affects all the processes in a database
22	A table or index has been damaged
23	The integrity of the entire database is affected and the database will be marked suspect
24	Hardware problem
25	System error