Michael Karas said:I gain a full understanding of how it works, where I can improve it, and how I can restructure it for the new features that have to be added.
But also note that because you are the writer....
the above quote refer to taking over someone elses garbage, NOT to "you are the writer".

Also if "you are the writer" is a parameter for you everybody that comes after you will rightfully declare your efforts garbage.

The compiler does not care about how the code was written
correct, but you sure do when debugging it

chances are the next person will think your code is just plain garbage
I have, occasionally, taken over code that was so well written that, instead of redoing it to my 'style' I adopted the original writers style for that project. I also have seen code that was impossible to follow.

The fact is that most, when discussing comments etc, talk about "the next person" the person that gains the most from well structured code is yourself. Now I must, in the interest of full disclosure, admit that if I were presented with some of my code from eons ago I would, most likely, consider it garbage. I learned the hard way to write code that I could understand when it was given back to me after years with "just add this feature"

The way you learn to not write 'garbage' is debugging it. Also when it is given back to you after years with "just add this feature" you will appreciate the clarity of your code and swear about the lack thereof.


Erik