I agree and disagree. Yes, code should be written as well as possible. However the reality of deadlines often will dictate how much time we can sped refactoring things. If I come across an evil design flaw that can be fixed QUICK with a (well commented) hack or MIGHT get fixed with a change to the engine design that will take me 2+ days to implement (and maybe more if it breaks other things)...well...when does this code get handed over to the client? In 6 months? Okay, I'll refactor it now. Tomorrow? Then it's the quick/hack option, no doubt.
How much time, and how often we can refactor code often depends on the situation. Myself being a contractor, I keep a lot of my own canned libraries around and refactor them when I can, as I know they'll be reused over and over. But if I'm on a deadline, I will go with "make it WORK now, and make it COOL when time permits later". When these situations pop up, I make sure to comment it with either "HACK!" or "NRETODO" so I can do a quick search later and find the places where we had to make shortcuts (and hopefully fix them in version 2.0). 2 cents. -nolan On 10/27/07, Sean Corfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On 10/27/07, Sam Larbi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 10/27/07, Barry Beattie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I used to be but I'm taking a more pragmatic approach now-a-days. > > > Sending code into the big bad world, never to see it again, and having > > > my reputation rest on it's success or otherwise. Get it right, get it > > > out. > > I'm not sure what you mean by that. Could you explain? (I know its off > > topic from your original post, which is why I changed the subject, but > I'm > > interested nevertheless). > > Without wishing to speak for Barry, I suspect he means that continuous > improvement is a luxury you can afford when you will be working on the > code throughout its lifetime. If you have just one shot to write code > and release it to a client - and you won't get a chance to improve it > after that - it had better be good, out of the gate! > > I agree. Code I write for myself and my startup (and to some extent > for open source projects where I'll continue to be involved), I write > fast and then refactor. Code I write for clients gets refactored > during my time on the project but I aim to have it be as good as > possible before I have to give it up. > > Make sense? > -- > Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN > An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ > > "If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." > -- Margaret Atwood > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CFCDev" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cfcdev?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
