In the 1980s, someone wrote an essay promoting "throw-away" code. Essentially he said every module (a) should be small in size, and (b) should have documentatio

In the 1980s, someone wrote an essay promoting "throw-away" code. Essentially he said every module (a) should be small in size, and (b) should have documentation that describes what the module does. Someone maintaining the code then has the option of keeping the interface, deleting the code and re-writing it, rather than try to understand the thought process of an overly clever programmer. I've always found this useful when I write code others have to maintain.