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> A one-off won't help much at all. Monumentally disagree. One-off session with a guy who knows the codebase inside out can save you days of research work. Pl

> A one-off won't help much at all. Monumentally disagree. One-off session with a guy who knows the codebase inside out can save you days of research work. Plus telling you all about the problematic/historical areas.

Night_Thastus 3y ago
I'm just stating my experience. A single day, if they still have access to the codebase might be able to clear up some top-level concepts. But the devil is in all the tiny details. What is this tiny correction factor that was added 20 years ago? Why was this value cut off to X decimals? Why didn't they just do Y here? Why do we override this default behavior? It's tens of thousands of tiny questions like that which you can't ask until you're there.
- slingnow 3y ago
  I don't understand what you're saying. Clearly both types of meetings (one-off vs recurring) would be helpful. The one-off may save you days/weeks of research, but it seems like you're not satisfied with that unless you can answer every single minor question you might have across the entire codebase.
  - Night_Thastus 3y ago
    I'm saying that if you're maintaining a code base for years, a single day's explanations won't do much of anything. It's a drop in the bucket. It's not a bad thing, and it's certainly good to do, but it's not a solution to the problem.
    - mellutussa 3y ago
      If your granularity for a task is measured in years then you have a much different and harder problem. Effectively everything becomes a "drop in the bucket".
      - rightbyte 3y ago
        Having a one day intro might save you two weeks of the 6 - 36 month task of getting to know the code base. Like ... it doesn't help that much. Mainly it saves some frustration of the build system is insane or the source code is spread out in mails, a hd and a floppy in a drawer or the current source state is broken and need to be reverted. But if the original author is there to do a handover, the chances are the company is properly run and the work will be a breeze anyway becouse the code is good and well structured.
        mellutussa 3y ago
        We'll just have to accept that we live in different worlds. I still consider what you described a massive save.
keepamovin 3y ago
Exactly. Someone to guide you in the right path. Gonna help a lot! Hahaha :)

Night_Thastus 3y ago

I'm just stating my experience. A single day, if they still have access to the codebase might be able to clear up some top-level concepts. But the devil is in all the tiny details. What is this tiny correction factor that was added 20 years ago? Why was this value cut off to X decimals? Why didn't they just do Y here? Why do we override this default behavior? It's tens of thousands of tiny questions like that which you can't ask until you're there.

slingnow 3y ago
I don't understand what you're saying. Clearly both types of meetings (one-off vs recurring) would be helpful. The one-off may save you days/weeks of research, but it seems like you're not satisfied with that unless you can answer every single minor question you might have across the entire codebase.
- Night_Thastus 3y ago
  I'm saying that if you're maintaining a code base for years, a single day's explanations won't do much of anything. It's a drop in the bucket. It's not a bad thing, and it's certainly good to do, but it's not a solution to the problem.
  - mellutussa 3y ago
    If your granularity for a task is measured in years then you have a much different and harder problem. Effectively everything becomes a "drop in the bucket".
    - rightbyte 3y ago
      Having a one day intro might save you two weeks of the 6 - 36 month task of getting to know the code base. Like ... it doesn't help that much. Mainly it saves some frustration of the build system is insane or the source code is spread out in mails, a hd and a floppy in a drawer or the current source state is broken and need to be reverted. But if the original author is there to do a handover, the chances are the company is properly run and the work will be a breeze anyway becouse the code is good and well structured.
      - mellutussa 3y ago
        We'll just have to accept that we live in different worlds. I still consider what you described a massive save.

keepamovin 3y ago

Exactly. Someone to guide you in the right path. Gonna help a lot! Hahaha :)