On 2011-12-15 20:41, Walter Bright wrote:
On 12/15/2011 9:49 AM, Robert Clipsham wrote:
* Do it all in one go, and DO NOT GET DISTRACTED. The moment you start
trying to
clean up code as well as finish porting it you introduce lots of issues
I've done many projects that translated code from one language to
another, some were pretty large. The One Big Most Important Rule is:
!!!! DO NOT REFACTOR/ENHANCE/IMPROVE/FIX/CLEANUP THE CODE WHILE
TRANSLATING !!!!
I know how tempting it is. It's incredibly tempting. It's a huge mistake.
The method that works is to turn your brain off, and simply translate.
Strive for a 1:1 correspondence between the original code and the
translated code. Do not divert from this until after your translation is
done, and it behaves identically to the original.
The reason is that the translated version inevitably will not behave
like the original. A lot of things will be broken. If you did a 1:1
translation, you can instrument both, find where the translation
diverges, and fix it in a fairly quick and straightforward manner. If
you changed the way it is organized or works, then you have no idea if
it is a translation error or your changes broke it, and you have a much,
much harder time fixing it.
Having ported the Mac OS X version of SWT from Java to D (and a couple
of other code bases) I completely agree with everything above. You just
have to turn your mind off and work like a machine when porting. It's
extremely tempting do some small fixes here and there but restrain
yourself, you'll thank yourself in the end.
--
/Jacob Carlborg
