When You take project over, after it being very long time in development, You can find very funny code snippets. Then You understand why project was soooo long in development. It is related rather with developer’s (not so)high skills ;)
One example (and there is more pieces, even better qualified as entry for The Daily WTF). It seems that is perfect example of design pattern known as Copy&Paste factory:
<a href="#">
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "fr" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-fr.gif" alt="fr_flag"/><% end -%>
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "en" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-gb.gif" alt="gb_flag"/><% end -%>
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "es" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-es.gif" alt="es_flag" /><% end -%>
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "nl" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-nl.gif" alt="nl_flag" /><% end -%>
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "it" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-it.gif" alt="it_flag" /><% end -%>
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "ru" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-ru.gif" alt="ru_flag" /><% end -%>
<% if session[:lang] && session[:lang] == "de" %><img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-de.gif" alt="de_flag" /><% end -%>
<%=_("Languages") %></a>
Do I have to say, that it was written as a single line :) ?
Now You know why customer had to find someone to finish application (read – rewrite)…
Good qualified workaholic can kill project in one morning ;) Or produce many WTF per hour.
What is answer? own helper?
@Sebastian
I would start with something like:
<% if session[:lang] -%> <img src="/images/LanguageToolFlags/flag-<%= session[:lang]%>.gif" alt="<%= session[:lang]%>_flag"/> <% else -%> <%= _("Language") %> <% end -%>