Developer revives 1990s Java tool written by author of 'Unmaintainable Code' guide

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A developer attempting to submit an app to legacy software directories discovered that the only available batch PAD file submission tool was a Java utility dating back to the late 1990s. The tool was originally written by Roedy Green, a Canadian software developer known for his Java utilities and the satirical essay 'How To Write Unmaintainable Code', who passed away in 2023. The last official release of the tool was in 2017, and it contained several modern web compatibility issues, including malformed HTTPS URLs and broken HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect handling. The developer patched these issues, successfully used the tool to submit their app to multiple directories, and published the updated version on GitHub as 'Mini PAD Submitter 26.3 Revived' in 2026. The episode drew an ironic parallel: the code of the man who famously wrote about making software impossible to maintain was itself maintained nearly three decades after it was first written.

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