From: Jim Idle 
> Comments are about WHY it does it, and no amount of 
> jiggering about with the code explains things like why 
> are particular algorithm was chosen and so on.

That's exactly what I was thinking - comments are for Why, not
How. The How might be awful but it's even worse (and a completely
separate issue) when we can't read the How and don't understand
the Why either.
 
I've been in both situations described in this thread:
- Had a hard time justifying to the client why code needed to be
re-written for a seemingly minor change.  (In the end, had to eat
the time put in by one of my contractors just to get the code to
a point where we could do constructive work for the client.)
- Had to back away from a few projects because the existing code
written by someone else was so bad.  My estimate for "how long
does it take to do this" was inflated X-fold to accommodate
"...given the current state of the code."
 
> And anyway, it's only BASIC, it isn't rocket science 
> (except for the blokes at JPL that use jBASE that is).
 
Jim - I'm at JPL occasionally and to my knowledge that's a major
Oracle shop. If I had known they had jBase anywhere I would have
submitted an application years ago.  Does anyone from JPL monitor
this list?

Tony Gravagno
Nebula Research and Development
TG@ remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com
The blog: remove.pleaseNebula-RnD.com/blog 
Visit PickWiki.com


--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Please read the posting guidelines at: 
http://groups.google.com/group/jBASE/web/Posting%20Guidelines

IMPORTANT: Type T24: at the start of the subject line for questions specific to 
Globus/T24

To post, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jBASE?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to