Dealing with Legacy Code

I found this piece of advice on how to deal with legacy code on a slashdot post by eln.

1.) Spend 2 weeks looking at code you don't understand.
2.) Loudly complain about the poor quality of the code, particularly algorithms that you don't understand.
3.) Make derogatory comments about the previous developers. Be sure to paint them as monosyllabic imbeciles who probably got dropped on their heads multiple times as children.
4.) Make minor changes to the code. If they blow up in your face, blame the previous developers for their poor grasp of basic programming practices. Make references to the previous programmers' relationship with their mothers.
5.) Delete the whole thing and start from scratch.
6.) 18 months of fumbling around later, realize that the previous code may have been better than you gave it credit for.
7.) Deny this.
8.) Release cobbled-together mess that lacks half the features of the previous codebase and features twice the bugs.
9.) Get job elsewhere.
10.) Company hires new programmer who starts the process over at step 1.

Point taken! And seriously defining legacy code as code without tests is a pretty bold statement. This means that there are some developers out there who are literally writing legacy code. This fact begs colleges to consider teaching testing as part of a CS curriculum.

Fall is here or is it coming...

The US Presidential campaigns have each nominated their candidates and side kicks and of course through the conventions, we've heard from the doer and the dream killers. Well from the pundits and reporters, we are now informed that the fall campaign season has officially started. But for some of us winning an electoral office isn't the challenge that we are facing, we have other real challenges to go past.

Like the inevitable coloration of the leaves a signal of the fall, is the challenge to see another semester through. This usually starts with the struggle to have the funds necessary to register for classes, get the school supplies, budget for food and housing among other life's essentials. This is not differnt though, maybe it is differnt in the sense that the challenges are far greater. As of today, I don't know if I will be in class that I should have been registered for more than two weeks ago. I got hope though. At least that is what Obama asks of us.

The problem hasn't been that of waiting to the last minute, rather that of waiting till the line clears for us to have a chance at the window. However this time the line did not clear and the window closed. A lot of vendors have been closing shop, the problem is they never let you know where they get their money to loan you, when it dries up, they have all the rights on earth to tell you that we are done even if you have been waiting all day to talk to someone. The problem isn't that of not having enough credibility but that of surrounding yourself with people who are like you; struggling to get by. The problem isn't failing to plan for challenges but that of determining the changing rules of the game.

Even as the semester is set to start, a late start for me won't be as bad. If it doesn't happen this time, then the question to answer will be, What can one do with a full year? What hope does a new America under Obama have for the lowly? Lets move on!