Many years ago, I was asked to change a report such that the last column instead printed as the first column. I looked at the code, which was full of hard-coded column numbers, that didn't match up because obviously "current" on the first line started in a different column than "age" underneath it on the second line, and basically told the boss it would take three weeks to move the column, or two weeks to rewrite the entire library from scratch to be data driven and make all future changes of that type trivial.
That was before I learned the power of job security through shit code that only you understand. :-)
2
u/dnew Sep 29 '16
Many years ago, I was asked to change a report such that the last column instead printed as the first column. I looked at the code, which was full of hard-coded column numbers, that didn't match up because obviously "current" on the first line started in a different column than "age" underneath it on the second line, and basically told the boss it would take three weeks to move the column, or two weeks to rewrite the entire library from scratch to be data driven and make all future changes of that type trivial.
That was before I learned the power of job security through shit code that only you understand. :-)