Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

[Greg Menke]

Joachim Durchholz <joachim.durchholz at web.de> writes:
> Frode Vatvedt Fjeld wrote:
> 
> > If you are afraid of method combination, then just don't use it. I can
> > guarantee you that it will not jump at you from some dark cave when
> > you least expect it, ripping your heart out with razor-sharp
> > claws.
> 
> Unless you're maintaining code written by others.
> I don't know what's the norm in the Lisp community, but I spend about
> 80% of my time reading and modifying legacy code. If a language offers
> a dark corner, I'm sure I'll hit it more often than I want.
> The bad thing about such dark corners is: if you try to clean the mess
> up, you'll invariably break things. After a few such mishaps, you
> don't even try to mess with that code. Avoiding messes will, after a
> few maintenance cycles, produce a true mess, until the entire system
> is thrown away and rewritten from scratch, in a different language,
> with different dark corners. Which means that, in a decade from now,
> when the original authors are gone, the same cycle will start.
> Not my idea of professional software development. No sir.

You'll find the same problems with any large project in any language.

Maintainable, Complex, Inexpensive

Choose any 2 and the 3rd is where you'll pay for it.


Gregm