Code reviews

[minestrone]

If I was a permie in charge of a contractor and when asking to fix a problem in something they went ahead and rewrote the thing I would be angling to get them out the door. it is the same as if I asked someone to paint my skirting boards and they went ahead and changed my wallpaper because they did not think the skirting boards would match the existing walls.

People who change things without being asked or beyond the remit of what was asked then seek approval after the fact are uncontrollable and essentially a liability.

[MyUserName]

Like I said in another thread 'do what you are asked to do, not what you think you should do'.

[EternalOptimist]

If I was a permie in charge of a contractor and when asking to fix a problem in something they went ahead and rewrote the thing I would be angling to get them out the door. it is the same as if I asked someone to paint my skirting boards and they went ahead and changed my wallpaper because they did not think the skirting boards would match the existing walls.

People who change things without being asked or beyond the remit of what was asked then seek approval after the fact are uncontrollable and essentially a liability.

aye
fools rush in, where angels fear to tread



but strike while the iron is hot

[Kanye]

What a depressing thread. You should only do exactly as you are instructed and show no thought or initiative at all?

My view was always that you should leave code better than you found it. If you can make simple refactorings such as pulling methods to improve readability, reuse, testablity then its basically your responsibility as a professional to do that.

Your IDE will do many of the simple ones for you anyway so they are generally safe and fast.

It's not overstepping the mark. It's about ownership, initiative, continual improvement, and having a professional approach to the broader requirement of delivering quality maintainable software rather than obediently following instruction like some kind of robot.

If anyone ever moaned at me for cleaning up the 1000 line monstrosity that the OP described by breaking it into appropriate classes and methods, I think I'd laugh and move on to somewhere that gave a toss about delivering good software.

[EternalOptimist]

I use my creative ingenuity whilst doing exactly what they want.

foe example, last week I was writing a screen handler using some rectangle , with a union manager
so my function is obviously called
RectUm()

plus the buttons always spell interesting thoughts about the PM

Its amazing the fun you can have with a menu for Test case, Union management, Reports and Design

[suityou01]

What a depressing thread. You should only do exactly as you are instructed and show no thought or initiative at all?

My view was always that you should leave code better than you found it. If you can make simple refactorings such as pulling methods to improve readability, reuse, testablity then its basically your responsibility as a professional to do that.

Your IDE will do many of the simple ones for you anyway so they are generally safe and fast.

It's not overstepping the mark. It's about ownership, initiative, continual improvement, and having a professional approach to the broader requirement of delivering quality maintainable software rather than obediently following instruction like some kind of robot.

If anyone ever moaned at me for cleaning up the 1000 line monstrosity that the OP described by breaking it into appropriate classes and methods, I think I'd laugh and move on to somewhere that gave a toss about delivering good software.

Tisk tisk young padewan. Where's there's chaos, there's cash.

[suityou01]

I use my creative ingenuity whilst doing exactly what they want.

foe example, last week I was writing a screen handler using some rectangle , with a union manager
so my function is obviously called
RectUm()

plus the buttons always spell interesting thoughts about the PM

Its amazing the fun you can have with a menu for Test case, Union management, Reports and Design

Configuration management, Use case specification, Nominal test cases, Test Management.

[NotAllThere]

I use my creative ingenuity whilst doing exactly what they want...

I'm similar, except I use my creative ingenuity to do exactly what I want.

Whether the OP overstepped his remit depends on exactly what he was asked to do, how he was asked, and the terms under which he was taken on. But I agree it would be crazy to make significant changes without discussion.

[MyUserName]

What a depressing thread. You should only do exactly as you are instructed and show no thought or initiative at all?

My view was always that you should leave code better than you found it. If you can make simple refactorings such as pulling methods to improve readability, reuse, testablity then its basically your responsibility as a professional to do that.

Your IDE will do many of the simple ones for you anyway so they are generally safe and fast.

It's not overstepping the mark. It's about ownership, initiative, continual improvement, and having a professional approach to the broader requirement of delivering quality maintainable software rather than obediently following instruction like some kind of robot.

If anyone ever moaned at me for cleaning up the 1000 line monstrosity that the OP described by breaking it into appropriate classes and methods, I think I'd laugh and move on to somewhere that gave a toss about delivering good software.

Whilst you do make a good point I think it is important to remember that it is not your software. If they have a 1000 line lump of spaghetti but they like it that way and ask you to fix a bug then you should fix it in line with the current system architecture. You can suggest way of improvement to the powers that be but at the end of the day it is not your code, it is theirs and they want their code the way they like it. The opinions of a passing contractor do not overrule the opinions of the perm staff who's job it is to maintain the code long after you are gone. They might not have test cases to test all of the refactoring or there might be other issues that you are not familiar with as to why the code should stay as it is.

If the boss likes your idea for refactoring the code and tells you to go for it then fill your boots but otherwise just do as you are told.

If I hired someone to fix my bath and I come back to find he has redecorated the bathroom (because the current industry standard is that that houses are easier to sell with redecorated bathrooms) then I would consider to him to have overstepped the mark and probably be quite annoyed if I did not want it done.

[suityou01]

Lot of decorating references being bandied about. Not sure folks get what refactoring is. For the absence of doubt, refactoring into x classes is the DIY equivalent of gutting the interior, putting in a new stair case, wiring, plumbing, and the testing and commissioning would be the decorating part in my mind.

HTH