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/* Inline corresponding strlen file, temporary until new strcpy implementation gets merged. */ git blame reveals this is from March 2013. "Temporary" indeed

• gnarbarian 11y ago
  Nothing is more permanent than a temporary solution.
  • munificent 11y ago
    I'm guessing you mean this in jest, but I believe it is literally true. Temporary code is usually poorly documented, poorly designed, deeply coupled, ugly code. Those are all the exact qualities that make it harder to change than high quality code. Unless you work very hard, the natural tendency is for all good code (which is correspondingly easy to change) to eventually be replaced with worse code that is harder to replace. Natural selection applies to code too and, unfortunately, the qualities that lead to longevity are often exactly opposite of the ones that lead to good code.
    • btrask 11y ago
      Those are all factors, but I think there's a deeper one: the same pressure to create a temporary solution also tends to keep it in place. On the other hand, when you are at your leisure to search for an ideal permanent solution, you probably have more time to keep changing it.
    • cthulha 11y ago
      I have to agree, from direct experience on some long-lived projects. Code entropy is a surprisingly strong force, and needs a strong technical culture to balance and keep a code base healthy.