Re: Writing new code vs. re-writing someone else's code

Good question. Personally, I think I tend to write more new code than reworking old code. However, I have taken on numerous projects where I've been required to port ASP to PHP and MSSQL dbs to Postgre or MySQL... but these projects also require a fair bit of new code. There are *so* many legacy COBOL applications though that, yeah, I think a COBOL programmer will very rarely get to write anything new. The people who I know who work with COBOL generally either patch problems or, if there's new functionality required, will code in Java or C. Ian On Tue, 2004-12-21 at 11:41 +0100, Eakin, W wrote: > Hello, > This question could be seen as a general programming question, but > because PHP is what I know best, I'll ask it here. > > A good friend of mine is the person who got me more interested in > programming as a career. She's a professional COBOL programmer, and > works for a large bank. She once told me that 75% of her time was spent > going over and rewriting/repairing old code that she didn't write, and > only 25% writing new code. From what I know about COBOL, it seems that > it might need more rewriting than other languages, because of all the > built up old code. But as I look forward to the day when I can work as a > full-time PHP coder, I wonder. The question is, how much of your time > (you, the professional PHP coder reading this), is spent > rewriting/repairing old code vs. writing new code. Although this is a > PHP list, and my question is in regards to PHP, if you want to give me > your opinion on this same question in regards to other languages you've > programmed in, I wouldn't mind. > > thanks, > William >