Help - I've inherited a website

[php dummy]

Need any type of help with an inherited website. Starting to think the website is set up wrong.

[DarkWater]

Be a bit more specific please, my crystal ball is broken.  What kind of site?  What do you mean by 'set up wrong'? =/

[php dummy]

Okay, here goes

Have had a few programmers look at the sight and scratch their heads. Don't know if the original guy knew what he was doing or purposely sabatoged the site. It works fairly well, but needs to be updated. We can't find anyone who wants to work on it. I know a little, so I thought I would give it a try. It is a pet registration website, (like American Kennel Club) users and breeders register dogs into a database. Would like to be able to track pedigrees, etc.

[DarkWater]

Sounds simple.  If the guy messed up that horribly, I'd suggest rewriting it or having someone rewrite it for you.  I'll take a look at it if you want though; send me a PM.

[sjmiller]

Ah, so the reality of web development settles in.  I've encountered many similar situations.  How well commented is the code?  How well structured is it?  Is it uniform across the board with naming conventions, bracket placement, indentation?

 

When re-working (or completely redoing) these are the things that you have to take into account when you could possibly have to pass it off to someone else.  Make sure that you are continually maintaining your code and making it legible and seeing that it flows smoothly.  1, it's easier for you to go through and find errors, and 2, others don't have a heart-attack when viewing it.

[php dummy]

Appreciate it, I emailed the url to you darkwater

[DarkWater]

Yeah, there are a set of like, implied "courtesy conventions" that people usually use when they code with other people in mind.  Tabbing properly, using good variable names, good documentation, etc.

 

EDIT: I have basketball practice; I'll check it out later.

[BoltZ]

Some people don't comment because they think another programmer will ever dare look at their code. Did those people really "scratch their heads" at the code? They must be newbies then unless this is a site like google or vbulletin code.

[corbin]

I've never (ok maybe very, very rarely) commented a script.  (Well, unless it's something I post on here or something.)

 

 

Mainly cause I'm lazy.

[BoltZ]

Same reason here. I see no point especially if someones going to steal the code

[Eric_Ryk]

Some people don't comment because they think another programmer will ever dare look at their code. Did those people really "scratch their heads" at the code? They must be newbies then unless this is a site like google or vbulletin code.

A lot of enterprise-sized software can be confusing as hell. When you open up an application and it has 50 includes right off the bat with no descriptive filenames, it can suck, bad. Especially when people have gone about trying to build an application structure that pulls in different files and objects from all over the place to complete a task.

 

The scratching of the heads could really just be that the initial programmer did a horrible job.

 

Same reason here. I see no point especially if someones going to steal the code

You think some programmer is going to just randomly jack part of your code? Most of the times I've seen code stolen is as a whole, so the comments really don't make a difference.

[BoltZ]

Well sometimes I think they will take my html/css. So I make the code unreadable by adding no white space, + that adds less kb to the file which means faster files

[Eric_Ryk]

Well sometimes I think they will take my html/css. So I make the code unreadable by adding no white space, + that adds less kb to the file which means faster files

Ultimate thing to do for that is to do gzip compression.

[BoltZ]

Never heard of it

 

 

TIME TO GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Maq]

Never heard of it

 

 

TIME TO GOOGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Windows users....

 

I've never (ok maybe very, very rarely) commented a script.  (Well, unless it's something I post on here or something.)

 

 

Mainly cause I'm lazy.

 

That's very bad practice.  It's always a good idea to comment scripts.  I guess if you're doing freelance it's not that big of a deal.  Also, web languages are so easy to learn and understand that only limited commentary is necessary.  But working for a company with larger, more complex projects and team members is a whole different story.

[waynew]

Ah, so the reality of web development settles in.  I've encountered many similar situations.  How well commented is the code?  How well structured is it?  Is it uniform across the board with naming conventions, bracket placement, indentation?

 

When re-working (or completely redoing) these are the things that you have to take into account when you could possibly have to pass it off to someone else.  Make sure that you are continually maintaining your code and making it legible and seeing that it flows smoothly.  1, it's easier for you to go through and find errors, and 2, others don't have a heart-attack when viewing it.

 

Amen.