Re: [Lib2geom-devel] C-arrays

[mathog <ma...@ca...>]

On 06-Nov-2013 10:44, Johan Engelen wrote:

> If anything, it will improve the readability of the code (in my
> opinion), which may inspire someone to further improve the code, or to
> use it somewhere else in the lib. Why do you think it will not improve
> the code? (certainly for stability/maintainability there is an obvious
> gain, perhaps you missed it in my earlier mails)

No, I didn't miss it, I just don't believe it.  I have been hearing 
claims like this for the last 35 or so years, for one language (or 
version) after another, and the outcome of rewriting code for these 
sorts of stylistic reasons has rarely resulted in any of the claimed 
benefits.  Working code is best left alone.  If 2geom was an 
incomprehensible mess of spaghetti code you might have a point, but I 
just had a look at it, and its organization seems pretty typical for C++ 
code.

Now if you have a functional improvement to make to 2geom, by which I 
mean changing some method to a different algorithm that runs faster or 
uses less memory, or adding a needed method, then by all means go ahead. 
  But don't waste your time rewriting working code just to make it better 
conform to some stylistic ideal.

Regards,

David Mathog
ma...@ca...
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech