Ask HN: Open Source Ugly Code? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Open Source Ugly Code?

14 pointsfranze6 comments

hi, i have a simple question to the hacker (news) community.

some time ago i coded a simple google chrome web store (javascript) app "Farbzauber"

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ednbfblokipkbkecmfinlfhcikhidnoc

to be honest, the code is kinda ugly, if i now look at i get a strange feeling in my tummy. i don't know if there is a word for it, maybe "codeshame" would be a good name.

anyway, i have no plans to do much more with it, so i can either let it rot in peace or open source it?

my questions are:

- even though i know that the code is ugly (and undocumented), should i open source it - as it is?

- does the world need another undocumented, uglycode open source "project"?

- or wait until i find the time to clean it up and document it? (which will probably never happen)

- or is there a service to outsource proper open-source-ing?

You should open source it. You lose nothing by creating a repository on GitHub and storing it there. And someone might find it useful.

That said, chances of it being useful to anyone would increase if the project had at least some introductory documentation. So, while there's no point in documenting and cleaning up everything, if you don't want to waste time on it, having a tutorial or "start here" documentation would probably help.

It takes a bit of courage to put up your "ugly" code out there, but then again, to paraphrase, if you're not ashamed of it, you waited too long :-) Maybe in the future you (or someone for whom the code is useful) will clean it up a bit, or add stuff to it. You never know.

Yes - opensource it. There's no reason against it really, is there?

Another potential benefit is that someone might be looking for some usage example of a specific set of functions and will find your code where it occurs.

Release early, release often. Worst case scenario is that somebody tells you your code is ugly, and this happens to everybody, including the people writing the most beautiful, elegant algorithms in existence.

Does it work how its supposed to?

sure

Then do it. No questions about it.

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