in reply to Re: Completely rewriting someone else's deprecated code...
in thread Seeking advice about learning another's code

I wrote that four years ago. In that time, a few things have happened, like the creation of subversion and improved testing facilities within Perl. I fully agree with everything you're saying, and would add those items in as part of a refactoring process.
My criteria for good software:
  1. Does it work?
  2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
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In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom