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Re: gEDA-user: Random thoughts on the future interface of PCB




Am 06.12.2010 um 12:55 schrieb Armin Faltl:

Markus, did you realize by now, that drill file optimization is actually
the NP-hard 'traveling salesman problem'? Tons of literature and
algorithms exist for it ;-)

Sure it is, and the original algorithm is back in place. Admittedly, I only had a look at the top of the algorithm, where a comment stated "sort by distance from origin" or something and didn't look what the function actually does.

Now, do _such_ minor annoyances hold you back from changing source code to the better? I experience such sitations often and sometimes I "loose", often I "win". But always, discussing a detail topic and/or implementing alternatives improves the knowledge contained in the code. Just make sure you leave a comment in the code telling about the non-improvements with these alternative approaches.

The unfortunate thing about such commodity issues is, some people built up a somewhat unfriendly attitude against any code changes at all. Perhaps because each code change sends the unseen, implicit message to the original author: "you were wrong or could have done better". Another, often seen attitude is "it works for me, so any change can do nothing but harm".

Please get over such feelings. Nobody sits down and hacks away hours and days just to point a finger to anyone. Much less they try to harm or hobble anybody.

It's a totally normal affair in evolution to find improvements later in time, and _that's_ the reason why programmers start submitting patches: improve something based on previous art. So any patch should give you the feeling: "my code was great, because others could improve on it" and "the sum of both works wouldn't exist without my original".


Markus

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Dipl. Ing. (FH) Markus Hitter
http://www.jump-ing.de/







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