Re: [Htmlparser-developer] toPlainTextString() feedback requested

[Sam J. <ga...@yh...>]

Joshua Kerievsky wrote:

>Sam wrote:
>  
>
>>As I mention above.  One should be careful of duplication removal for
>>the sake of it.
>>    
>>
>
>And as I mentioned above, I completely disagree with you.  I wonder, how
>much refactoring have you done in your career given you philosophy of "if it
>ain't broke, don't fix it?"   Have you read Martin Fowler's landmark book,
>Refactoring?   If not, I'd suggest you study it thoroughly - you'll be a
>better programmer for it.
>
I must say that I have yet to be convinced of the value of continous 
refactoring.  I think you can have too much of a good thing.  I refactor 
a lot in my code.  I am constantly looking at how to design things more 
efficiently, how to implement a number of different pieces of code in a 
smaller, tidier way, and also I am well aware that too much refactoring 
can be dangerous.  In your haste to refactor everything, consider that 
this is only the latest in a long line of computing fads, and none of 
them is a cure-all.  Refactoring is just another technique, like OO, or 
unit testing.  It will only help you if use it in moderation.  Once you 
internalise this, you'll be a better programmer. Trust me.

In my 15 years of coding experience I have seen projects collapse both 
from too much refactoring and too little.  To believe that you will 
improve your project purely as a consequence of refactoring is just 
plain wrong in my experience.  I am not saying that you shouldn't 
refactor in this case, I'm just saying that I think the effort spent on 
refactoring would be better spent on first improving the documentation. 
 Somik replied to my issues about documentation saying that he had been 
working on it and asking me to point out other places where the 
documentation could be improved.  I don't have time right now to go 
through and make those points, but as a *user* of htmlparser I would 
appreciate it if you would leave off any refactoring until you have gone 
through the entire code base and expanded every javadoc comment so that 
it really described what the method was doing in a manner understandable 
to someone unfamiliar with the code base.  I think that if you direct 
your effort here first before refactoring you will have a greater 
increase in users in the long run.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against refactoring, and I use the term "if 
it ain't broke don't fix it" partly in jest.  My main point was about 
"documenting before fixing".  I don't believe that any refactoring that 
you do will replace the need for good documentation, for the code base 
that *is already deployed and in use*.

I am asking you as a *user* of htmlparser to focus on the documentation 
(and release a version including that latest documentation) before 
moving on with your refactoring.  Remember it is dangerous for a 
software project to ignore the needs of its users.

CHEERS> SAM