Legacy Code

The eternal struggle of math majors who chose programming instead of the "traditional" math paths. On the left, we see the bright, colorful world of physics, machine learning, electrical engineering, statistics, and numerical analysis – all respectable career choices that utilize advanced mathematics. On the right, the noir film-style programmer, stripped of color and joy, questioning their life choices while debugging someone else's spaghetti code at 3 AM. That moment when you realize you could be solving differential equations but instead you're arguing with the compiler about why a semicolon is missing. The math degree prepared you to understand complex algorithms but forgot to mention you'd spend 90% of your time fixing indentation errors.

Content Javascript first appeared in 1995. Programmers in 1994:

The holy trinity of "things that don't matter" according to people who have them in abundance. Rich folks saying money doesn't matter, attractive people claiming looks don't matter, and then the punchline – senior engineers at standups mumbling "no updates" while secretly working on the same bug for 3 days straight. Nothing says "leave me alone with my code" like the blank stare of a developer who'd rather debug in peace than explain why they're still wrestling with that one-line fix that should've taken 10 minutes. The daily standup: where developers perfect the art of saying absolutely nothing while looking productive.

Content Graeme Coleman graemecoleman V Hello, my name is Graeme, I have a PhD in computing, and I am a senior accessibility consultant, but when I want to type "" on a Windows laptop 1 go to Beyonc's Wikipedia page and copypaste the letter from there.

The classic "I'll just work on this quick side project" to "oh god what have I done" pipeline. Five hours of Java coding, feeling all proud about your brilliant creation, only to realize you forgot version control. Now you're frantically typing rm *.java followed by git add *.class commands like a madman, trying to salvage what's left of your dignity. The face of pure desperation in that last panel is the universal developer expression for "I've made a terrible mistake." That moment when you realize you've been adding compiled files instead of source code to your repo is the closest programmers get to an out-of-body experience.

Oh honey, Doxygen just asked "how's it goin?" and unleashed the GATES OF HELL! 😱 That diagram is what happens when your "clean code" meets reality - a catastrophic spider web of dependencies that would make even the most seasoned developer question their career choices. No amount of auto-documentation can save you from the nightmare that is spaghetti code. It's like putting lipstick on a garbage fire! The transition from "hey how's it goin?" to pure existential crisis is the most accurate representation of documentation day I've ever seen. Doxygen didn't just generate documentation - it generated a MAP OF YOUR SINS! 💀