Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I'm looking through old code -- I wrote some of it more than ten years ago -- and as a result I have an earworm. A song I'm sure several of you know.

Little boxes
In the listing
Little boxes
Made of asterisks...

But I'm feeling just a wee bit smug about being able to look at code that I haven't even glanced at in about that long, and know exactly why it's doing what it's doing, and what I was thinking when I wrote it that way. I was starting to feel a little silly about the degree to which I've been documenting the things I've been working on this month, but after looking at decade-old programs and noticing how much sense they make with the help of those little boxes made of asterisks, I don't feel silly about spending more time commenting than coding after all.

(In contrast, there are a couple programs I didn't comment to my usual standards, and I'm no longer sure what they even try to do, much less how. Ew.)

Now if I could be so organized about anything in my life other than source code ...

"The days of my years are numbered, praise be to God. While they last, I hope to eat well, hunt well, fight well, and take my share of pleasure. I leave to others the arid satisfactions of self-denial and other perversions." -- Stanley of the Aga Kaga in "Protest Note" (aka "The Desert and the Stars") by Keith Laumer (1962)

[And to my friends here in the US (or from here): Happy Thanksgiving!]