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Survey Results

You're being handed someone else's code to manage. What do you most hope for?

Survey period: 25 Apr 2022 to 2 May 2022

You probably want to choose them all, but you can only pick one. Assume the code is in a language and subject area you understand.
OptionVotes% 
Comments and inline documentation to explain what's happening9215.46
Clear, clean, well-written code that's self explanatory28648.07
No critical security issues that will be a nightmare to fix223.70
Unit tests that cover everything important274.54
That it's written using a framework you understand335.55
Documentation: specs, requirements, goals, records of what decisions were made and why9015.13
The phone number of the person who originally wrote the code457.56



 
GeneralThe phone number? Totally useless Pin
Nelek27-Apr-22 23:04
protectorNelek27-Apr-22 23:04 
GeneralRe: The phone number? Totally useless Pin
den2k8827-Apr-22 23:40
professionalden2k8827-Apr-22 23:40 
GeneralRe: The phone number? Totally useless Pin
Nelek28-Apr-22 1:18
protectorNelek28-Apr-22 1:18 
GeneralRe: The phone number? Totally useless Pin
BryanFazekas29-Apr-22 1:26
BryanFazekas29-Apr-22 1:26 
GeneralAll of the above? Pin
OriginalGriff27-Apr-22 21:39
mveOriginalGriff27-Apr-22 21:39 
GeneralProject documentation Pin
den2k8827-Apr-22 21:28
professionalden2k8827-Apr-22 21:28 
GeneralRe: Project documentation Pin
willichan29-Apr-22 4:29
professionalwillichan29-Apr-22 4:29 
GeneralI've been in this situation just last month... Pin
Sander Rossel27-Apr-22 21:17
professionalSander Rossel27-Apr-22 21:17 
And the problem is rarely ever reading the code.
Even when I find comments they're usually unclear and/or outdated.
I really don't care for inline comments, never have.

The problem is getting it to run locally and then releasing it to production.
I had to get a specific version of Node.js and npm, then I had to run some scripts.
Some thing never got to work because some style file was never in npm's build output.
I had to get passwords by finding config files in an Azure environment.
For release I hope for a well working pipeline, but unfortunately it wasn't working.
The programmer used a "windows-latest" machine and Microsoft had just changed "latest" from VS2019 to VS2022, which apparently was a problem for npm (I know, what the Elephant | [mastadon] !? Unsure | :~ )
For some other task I had to run some specific scripts that were on the original programmer's computer (or in his head, maybe).

Another project I'm working on is doing everything in the database and using some background no-code solution to move everything around.
It's a nightmare and you can only know what being done with data by knowing it.
There's a tiny ASP.NET WebForms shell, but then there's a SQL Database with 100's (1000's?) of stored procedures, views, functions...

In both cases I could really do with some documentation.
How do I get this running? What's the overall setup? Where can I find configurations? What manual steps should I take? How do I deploy to various environments?
Just a neat Word document to get me started would do.

GeneralRe: I've been in this situation just last month... Pin
Andreas Mertens29-Apr-22 3:43
professionalAndreas Mertens29-Apr-22 3:43 
GeneralRe: I've been in this situation just last month... Pin
Jacquers29-Apr-22 21:33
Jacquers29-Apr-22 21:33 

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