What happens when you search 'ugly hack' in GitHub(github.com)

73 pointsby BaltoRouberolhá 12 anos68 comments

What happens when you search 'ugly hack' in GitHub

https://github.com/search?q=ugly+hack&ref=cmdform&type=Code

68 comments

DCKinghá 12 anos

I love the term 'ugly hack'. It's a very short way of saying 'a solution for a problem that assumes too much of the current context in which this component is called, and is guaranteed to break when the context changes'. It also implies 'this is intended to be temporary because I don't feel like doing the proper solution at this moment' which is accompanied with the intent 'we should fix this later' although most people who write it also have the wisdom that that almost never happens.

All of this is expressed in just two words :)

madeofpalkhá 12 anos

When I write it it usually means I know it sucks, but I'm reasonably happy with it - but if someone catches me out on it it's ok because I already criticised it myself

andrey-phá 12 anos

Excellently put. It's like lampshading[1], for code.

[1]: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging

goblin89há 12 anos

In my experience “ugly hack” means any technical debt that spans lines of code, as opposed to components of a system.

(Edited for clarity.)

DCKinghá 12 anos

It's actually too general. What I mean with component here can be anything from a line of code to a class hierarchy.

In a sense, using the word 'component' here was an ugly hack. I should have gone for the proper solution and properly define it. You see now that it breaks down when the interpretation changes.

goblin89há 12 anos

I guess I understand. I objected because I felt you were assuming too much of some context in your definition of “ugly hack” :) I can't imagine using the term “ugly hack” to describe some unfortunate high-level architectural decision.

mmahemoffhá 12 anos

It's a worthy practice indeed. Bowing to the virtue of taking on some technical debt instead of deluding oneself that all code must be Pristine.

ebiesterhá 12 anos

Sometimes, instead of "I don't feel like doing the proper solution," it's "I haven't yet figured out the proper solution," or "A cleaner solution means adding 250 lines of code to address problems we may not have."

brudgershá 12 anos

'Ugly hack' is an ugly hack of 'kludge'.

gjm11há 12 anos

Some results normalized by overall language popularity. Specifically, the entry in row R and column C is 1000 * (hits for C in language R) / (hits for "the" in language R) or "---" if either the numerator or denominator was small enough not to make the top-10 list on github.

All the scraping was done by hand and the numbers rounded to a limited number of places in the process, so there may very well be mistakes.

[EDIT: oops, initially I failed to paste in the actual data.]

       ugly hack      ugly beautiful       lol       wtf     buggy
   xml       ---       ---    14.330    72.775     2.489       ---
     c     6.348    35.421     0.670     0.768     3.650    32.009
  html     1.359     9.001    34.791     4.233     3.095     5.870
    rb       ---       ---       ---     4.483     3.151       ---
    py     9.051    35.614    28.506       ---    11.135    15.066
   php     3.731     8.333     1.781    39.037     1.792     3.754
   c++     2.851    12.507       ---     0.501   102.657     7.579
    js     6.850    16.826     2.643     2.635     7.406    29.761

Tentative conclusions: Python is ugly-hack-iest and (almost exactly tied with C) ugliest; HTML is most beautiful with Python a close second, XML is lolliest, C++ is WTFiest, and C is buggiest.

Tentative meta-conclusion: these numbers have no value beyond idle amusement. But they idly amused me, so that's OK.

(The weirdest result of the lot, to me, is XML coming top for "lol". If you do the search and click on "XML" on the left you'll see why it is. Lots of instances of what I think are the same file, full of "&lol;" entities. LOL, that's pretty ugly. WTF? An ugly hack, I guess.)

BetaCygnihá 12 anos

The &lol; entities are the "Billion laughs" attack: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs

BaltoRouberolhá 12 anos

bwhaha that's insane

adamchá 12 anos

I read your table and immediately jumped to a different conclusion: That python programmers are more sensitive to ugly hacks and more likely to call them out. Not saying I'm right, but I don't know that the data can distinguish the hypotheses.

brudgershá 12 anos

Not picking a language fight.

My intuition tells me that if your alternative hypothesis were true, then php programmers have higher standards because they ajudge more code 'ugly and C++ programmers are universally perfectionists...or at least when they are not confused which it appears they usually are.

Just for fun with hypothesizing, does Python's near 50/50 split between 'ugly and 'beautiful suggest a large degree of random use? Or more interestingly, does it suggest there is a tendency to classify middle cases as extreme cases, and is this a result of the community having 'a Pythonic Way?'

logicalleehá 12 anos

I immediately felt the same and left a comment. But what would distinguish it is if "Go" had a high proportion of such comments, where "Perl" would have a low one.

logicalleehá 12 anos

Could .py have the greatest number of "ugly hacks" because the community's standards for explicit, "beautiful" designs is higher? This would be shown if languages like Go have a much higher prevalence for "ugly hack" than a language like Perl. (Where even core language features, ahem you can complete the thought.)

hornetblackhá 12 anos

I literally laughed out loud at C++ in wtf column.

steelcmhá 12 anos

There is a namespace in C++ called WTF, which probably accounts for a skew in that column.

pfultz2há 12 anos

There is a library in C++ called Web Transaction Framework(WTF): https://github.com/belzano/WTF

namuolhá 12 anos

Pretty interesting/amusing to see the language breakdown of various words (with big grains of salt):

https://github.com/search?q=beautiful&type=Code

https://github.com/search?q=ugly&type=Code

https://github.com/search?q=lol&type=Code

https://github.com/search?q=wtf&type=Code

int19hhá 12 anos

There's plenty of work for C devs!

https://github.com/search?q=todo&type=Code&ref=searchresults

chdirhá 12 anos

If you actually look at the details, these terms aren't used in the same context as we might imagine. If there was a way to filter out useless projects, this would get interesting.

peatonhá 12 anos

As you said, big grains of salt... It would be probably more helpful if they were normalized by the percentage any particular language is used overall on Github.

ntasohá 12 anos

So, HN's hate-child PHP is funnier, more beautiful, less ugly and less confusing than sexy JavaScript. Although Python rules them all.

DCKinghá 12 anos

To be fair, PHP has a well-known problem of a lot of people not being able to properly judge the quality of the code they write ;) [1]

[1] Of course I don't mean you, my dear PHP writing comment reader.

girvohá 12 anos

And no other widely used language has that problem ;)

paddyoloughlinhá 12 anos

Python seems to get a leg-up on the beauty stakes thanks to the popularity of the BeautifulSoup library :)

watwuthá 12 anos

I love this one - someone made Java annotation for ugly hacks: https://github.com/benpage26/libxron/blob/016dd953a54eacada2...

mcvhá 12 anos

That is some real dedication the the Java way.

jamesk14022há 12 anos

"Fix ugly hack to at least be consistent with itself", haha, this is brilliant.

amirmchá 12 anos

I'd be curious to see if there's a relationship between 'ugly hack' in code commits and the languages being used (though it'd probably say more about the programmer than the language). The bar chart on the left of the page hints that it's possible, but would have to be normalised.

My hypothesis is there'd be no real difference, but it would be fun to explore nonetheless.

exabrialhá 12 anos

I would think the left bar would remain accurate. C lets you shoot yourself and people do it. PHP is terrible for a lot of well documented reasons. Javascript is being used for things it originally never envisioned.

The hyped dynamic languages sort of surprise me, with their modern APIs. I'm guessing most of that is poor framework programing.

Finally, Java's numbers? lol. Its a brave new world. If this was 8 years ago in ejb v1.2 Java world have taken the crown.

fuzzixhá 12 anos

> I'd be curious to see if there's a relationship between 'ugly hack' in code commits and the languages being used

Perl is not in their list.

Either everything we do is an ugly hack, or everything we do is simple and elegant. :)

giancarlostorohá 12 anos

Or... nobody writes in Perl anymore... or... every Perl developer is a seasoned Perl developer.

fuzzixhá 12 anos

Welp, neither of those are true.

mysterywhiteboyhá 12 anos

Another fun search on GitHub - looking for the code paradox i.e. this should "never happen".

https://github.com/search?l=c&p=7&q=never+happen&ref=searchr...

paddyoloughlinhá 12 anos

Amusingly, a lot of Python's hits appear to be hacking the import logic.

[0]: https://github.com/search?l=python&q=ugly+hack&ref=cmdform&t...

KhalPandahá 12 anos

It looks like ugly hacks are far more popular than clever ones.

https://github.com/search?q=clever+hack&type=Code&ref=search...

reidrachá 12 anos

Look for dirty hacks; still... C way ahead the rest.

Interesting that "ugly" places PHP over Javascript, but "dirty" is the other way around.

I wonder what does it mean. The comments and the "ugly" or "dirty" qualifiers are just part of the perception of the person writing the comment, and they're contributing to spread that perception to others.

What qualifies as "ugly", "dirty" and "clever", or even as "hack", may be quite different depending on the language and the community behind it.

leni536há 12 anos

Yeah, I don't think "ugly hack" or any other variants is frequent in bash script comments.

duiker101há 12 anos

because "ugly hack" is a warning to however might want to fiddle with it, clever hack is more just a show off.

KhalPandahá 12 anos

That, and ugly hacks are easier. I was only kidding. :-)

hugofirthhá 12 anos

Haha:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j7rwshax2e9zwln/Screenshot%202014-...

Not even PHP can come within a factor of 5 of C when it comes to ugly hacks.

EDIT: And its not exactly like there is a bias at work: http://goo.gl/ZezFiP

torrent-of-ionshá 12 anos

But is it because C programmers make more ugly hacks or that C programmers are more likely to know when they are making an ugly hack?

krapphá 12 anos

I think PHP is more or less just for the web, giving C programmers more ugly hack surface overall.

Also PHP itself is an ugly hack of C anyway.

spyderhá 12 anos

There is a bias because there is more C code. The number of repositories doesn't equal to the quantity of code and if you search for general things that are used in both languages frequently then there is always more C results, for example:

https://github.com/search?p=1&q=if+&ref=searchresults&type=C...

https://github.com/search?p=1&q=return+&ref=searchresults&ty...

hugofirthhá 12 anos

Fair enough. If there is a bias towards C I would guess it was more due to the situations in which C gets used, than C itself. Talking to a friend who has to try and get the same C/C++ codebase to compile for 6 different platforms (consoles) has been an eye opening experience. That kind of environment is like a slightly warm petri dish for ugly hacks.

wildmXranathá 12 anos

Search for "temporary fix" https://github.com/search?q=temporary+fix&type=Code&ref=sear.... 3 million plus and counting :)

mcvhá 12 anos

That also matches with just "fix" or "temporary". This one works better: https://github.com/search?q=%22temporary+fix%22&type=Code&re...

Now to figure out how old these are.

zmk_há 12 anos

Some hacks are just beautiful! https://github.com/search?q=%22beautiful+hack%22&ref=searchr...

miohtamahá 12 anos

Maybe some ducklings too?

https://github.com/search?q=ugly+duck&type=Code&ref=searchre...

staredhá 12 anos

I was not surprised to see tex (even though it is not a popular language on GitHub). It seems that one have to resort to (ugly) hacks when dealing with it.

(That said, I love its fruits.)

buddhahá 12 anos

"dirty fix" https://github.com/search?q=dirty+fix&type=Code

diminotenhá 12 anos

A modern-day batman might do this search and then submit pull requests which fix the "ugly hacks".

xvirkhá 12 anos

it's even better when you search for "temporary hack"

https://github.com/search?q=temporary+hack&type=Code&ref=sea...

pnngndclsnghá 12 anos

Simple question: does "ugly hack" mean "a quick fix before relase" ?

jobigoudhá 12 anos

It usually means that something out of your control is acting strange and you don't know or can't properly fix it, but you have found a weird workaround that should probably not even work, or an very contrived way to achieve the result.

As one obviously only writes extremely elegant code, it is important to notify the programmer coming after that you were forced to write it this way.

karlcoelho1há 12 anos

I love how Ruby isn't even included in the list. RUBY THE BEST

aadlanihá 12 anos

No ugly hacks in ruby! that's a great news.

jonhellerhá 12 anos

Surprised CSS isn't on the top of this list

JetSpiegelhá 12 anos

400k results for C, the next one is 40k for PHP

miohtamahá 12 anos

Looks like Ruby doesn't have ugly hacks.

nXqdhá 12 anos

How about 'for now' :D

JimmaDaRustlahá 12 anos

Wait...you mean...I find the words "ugly hack" in source files across thousands of projects on GitHub?

n0bodyhá 12 anos

I have no idea why this is on the front page.

mkesperhá 12 anos

fun? meta-programming?

n0bodyhá 12 anos

You and I have a very different definition of fun, and meta-programming.

kviranihá 12 anos

Mostly C!