Re: The narcissism of small code differences

References	<527e2d9c$0$29972$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <b794f36e-d43e-428e-b8e5-adcf986fabfc@googlegroups.com> <l5q7ph$5te$1@ger.gmane.org>
Date	2013-11-11 20:53 +1100
Subject	Re: The narcissism of small code differences
From	Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.python
Message-ID	<mailman.2364.1384163608.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

Show all headers | View raw

On Mon, Nov 11, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> On 11/11/2013 06:50, Rick Johnson wrote:
>>    In a nutshell the author attempts to plead for the
>>    "longevity" of "old code bases" simply on the basis of his
>>    assertion that "old code bases" are "less buggy" and
>>    contain more "wisdom" than their new brethren -- both of
>>    which are absurd conclusions!
>>
>
> I recall that the demise of Netscape was due to them trying to completely
> rewrite code of this nature.  The exception that proves the rule?

No, I would say Netscape's experience is a strong supporting example
of the contrary position. I've frequently had need to reimplement
something (most recently as part of porting functionality from RosMud,
written in C++, to Gypsum, written in Pike), and referencing the old
code is the best way to benefit from X years of corner-case
discoveries and bug fixes. Sometimes I'll even copy and paste a
comment from one version to another, because it perfectly explains
some oddity that the code has to handle - even if the code itself is
completely rewritten. Definitely if hunks of code can be kept, they
should be. The old code base *IS* less buggy and contains more wisdom.
Hardly absurd.

ChrisA

Back to comp.lang.python | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

The narcissism of small code differences Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-11-09 12:42 +0000
  Re: The narcissism of small code differences Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-09 13:02 +0000
  Re: The narcissism of small code differences Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 22:50 -0800
    Re: The narcissism of small code differences Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-11 09:25 +0000
    Re: The narcissism of small code differences Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 20:53 +1100

csiph-web