[WalterBright]

> A lot of young people think that the people who wrote software 30 years ago were just plain stupid and all wrote crappy code.

Stupid, no. Crappy code, yes. Part of the reason people wrote crappy code then is because programming techniques and best practices have come a long way. The other part is most people writing code then were inexperienced coders.

Of course, plenty of crappy code (most?) is written today, mostly because of inexperienced coders. It's not because they're stupid. After all, who would make a 20 year old a general?

[james_s_tayler]

Thinking about it as 'crappy code' is the wrong way to think about it. It's average code. Everything is normally distributed, including the quality of code. On average code quality is average. Some of it at the top tail end of the distribution is beautiful and some of it at the bottom end is an unworkable trash fire.

That hasn't change in the last few decades and it won't change in the next few decades either.