Hi Randall,

I'm sure Jim Nelson will jump into this thread with the opinion opposite of mine.

I can just tell about myself.

When I'm reading someone's code and I see a way to improve it even in the little thing like llVar = iif(empty(anothervar),.t.,.f.) I always have an urge to fix it. I can not just passively read the code, I need to feel it.

Unfortunately, this got me into the trouble quite often. People even call me "pushy", though I don't think it's really is my nature. I just like the efficient code. I can take the critigue myself very easily and I always try to improve even the code which is already working, if I find a new and better way...

For the beginning I would advise you to just analyze the code and see, if you can understand its meaning. Then think how would you solve the same problem and would your way be more efficient or not? You may try to run some tests, etc.

I would suggest you to read Martin Salaas articles in UT Magazine about extreme programming....

>Folks:
>
>Is it just me, or do you people think it's easier/faster to
>just write your own code than to try and figure out
>what another programmer is doing in his/her programs?
>
>I'm sure all of us here are well aware of "programming style."
>I've seen "code that matches my way of thinking," and
>"code that could _easily_ win 'The Obfuscated C programming
>Contest' -- HANDS DOWN! :^) -- held on the Usenet every year.
>
>Fortunately, a friend of mine and I have replaced some dewd that
>seems to think like we do, so reading his code isn't really all that
>difficult; however, it is very time consuming! What do you people
>think? Anyone else out there been/going through this? :^)
>
>Randall