Naomi,

>I agree with you what we should always try to find the best and fastest algorithm.
>
>On the other hand, it's quite often the situation - if it's ain't broken, don't fix it. There should be a balance found when changes are absolutely necessary and when 1ms speed gain would not benefit in the whole picture.

Sure. But blatantly redundant code I view as broken. If functionally identical code is splattered all over the app this is an accident waiting to happen and this I always fix if I take over resposnibility over a program and come across it. Tweaking for speed (if necessary) then is much easier, as is all maintainance.

regards

thomas