In article <3ee4dcf2@news.povray.org> , "Ray Gardener" 
<ray### [at] daylongraphicscom> wrote:

> Okay, so we've established that there is no genuinely
> useful reason why so many blocks are allocated.
> The code is only the way it is because of legacy reasons.
>
> For long-term maintenance, I just feel it would be
> better to simplify the code than to leave it
> complicated. Even if there's no performance increase,
> it would make the code easier to understand, and
> put less stress on the memory manager. As one
> of POV-Ray's stated goals is to be an educational tool,
> simplifying the code would help students, would it not?
> What's the point of having unnecessary obsfucation
> in an educational tool? Perhaps it might be a waste
> of programmer time, but what about students' time?
> And what if the existing code imparts the wrong lesson?
>
> At the very least, put in a comment saying
> "This code is overly complex. Given the choice,
> we would have implemented it this way..."

There is hardly a reason to improve code in 3.5 by rewriting it to make it
better when it will be thrown away in 4.0 anyway.  And many legacy pieces of
code will be thrown away.

In short: If it ain't broken, don't fix it.  Especially if you will replace
it completely in the next release anyway...

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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