in reply to very tight perl syntax

I have to figure out/maintain this 40 page program.
It'll be a waste of time to fully understand this program. Deal with it when it needs to be "maintained" (whatever 'maintained' is going to mean - add new features, fix bugs, compile on a new platform, apply new paint), and then deal with it - and only deal with those parts that need dealing with.

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Re^2: very tight perl syntax
by Argel (Prior) on Jun 06, 2011 at 15:52 UTC
    If the program is not that important your advice is good. But if other teams rely on it, his manager considers it important (for whatever reason), or it's business critical, then unless there is a good test suite/environment he needs to learn enough of the program to be able to tell if what appears to be a minor change really is. Seems to be pretty weak advice given that the odds of there being a good test suite/environment are likely approaching negative infinity.... Update: Maybe better advice would writing a test suite for the program and then try and refine it to "good" status. Though that would still not help with estimating how much effort is needed to make changes to the code.

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