Either way, this rant doesn't really offer any insight on the programs context, and what the author should have done. Nothing to learn here folks.
PS - Can we stop using "epic fail" and other internet-fanboy like colloquialisms in our titles please?
It's not our title. That is the title of the post. So for example, if Joel's next article is entitled "The Cat Pictures Were an Epic Win For Suzie's New Startup", then that's a completely valid HN submission title.
... But it really was epic just how horribly that line of code failed, though. 5 bugs in just 48 characters; or 1 bug every 9.6 chars. The rest of the system was probably equally epic.
On a smaller scale, epic might describe something that brings an entire company down, perhaps (if you believe some of the rants) the decision to rewrite the Netscape browser from the ground up.
JM2C on "epic"...
Also the rant does say what the program should do - if it can't write to the folder, raise an exception and alert the user.
Also, whether there is something to learn depends on who you are and what you know, it's not an objective property of the information you're looking at.
PS - "epic fail" is very descriptive and fear-of-being-called-a-fanboy-peer-pressure shouldn't be what stops you from using it.