Is a bit of refactoring in order?

[Adam Treat]

On Sunday 05 June 2005 12:51 am, Steven T. Hatton wrote:
> On Saturday 04 June 2005 23:32, Matt Rogers wrote:
> > Sure. Good luck finding somebody with time though.
> >
> > Matt
>
> The problem is, if it doesn't happen, it is going to continue to get worse,
> and what is now difficult to work with will become impossible to work with.
> In my mind, this is the most important open source project there is.

Couple points:

1.  What you're pointing out has been the case for a very long time.  Still, 
KDevelop is a pretty good IDE and the best C++ IDE by far.  And the code can 
be read.  It is possible, although not easy in all places.

2.  Look, no one is going to disagree that refactoring is good^TM and we 
should do more of it.  You're not really telling us anything that isn't 
already known.

3.  I love KDevelop.  It is the only editor I use for development now a days.  
But there is no way it is the most important open source project out there.  
More important that KDE?  More important than Qt?  More important than the 
Linux kernel?

4.  Dig in.  Seriously.  No one is going to object to the code being made more 
readable and improved.

Of course, what is probably going to happen is the KDevelop meeting coming up 
will determine the direction of the project.  Some are pushing for a 
near-to-complete rewrite.  Others want to see the current code base 
continue... be ported, improved and extended.

Personally, I want to see the current code base live on, but rewrite a 
substantial part of the cpp language part.  Roberto's parser will be 
integrated and we'll need to rewrite that.  Plus, the new Kate changes are 
going to make it hard to do anything less than a complete rewrite of that 
part.  Other parts of the code base are in relatively good shape and there is 
no reason, I feel, to start with a blank slate in these cases.

If I were to recommend one thing we do is to concentrate on doing what we 
do... WELL... and leave the more trivial features, capabilities out unless we 
can do them WELL too.

Adam