Programming / Script question
 

Just curious because I've wondered about it myself before. Does anyone provide a service to go through an existing script and fix any bugs, clean it up a little, and basically improve it?

Say I had a php/mysql script like a linkdump, or guestbook script, etc.. something simple like these mostly.

Working on other people's scripts is usually a pain in the ass, I don't think many programmers will want to deal with it unless you are willing to pay well..

Agreed. I hate trying to read the undocumented spaghetti some people put out.

On the flip side of that coin, most coders feel that only THEIR code is readable and serviceable. More than half the jokers would look at the tightest code you can imagine and bad-mouth the old coder to their new clients. It's par for the course.

Quoted for truth.

Fixing other peoples bugs is a huge pain in the ass...

Agreed, its a HUGE pain in the ass and I usually won't take those kind of jobs unless im hurting for money or really bored of what I'm doing.

I should also note, I gotta a buddy right now that IS hurting for work that would be more then happy to fix that script for you lol, hit me up for his icq.

You ain't a programmer just cause you can write a program.

be cheaper to get it recoded from scratch

I had such an experience in past when I was working as a senior developer for some software company and was needed to convert and modify the code written by other person to another programming language (mostly I was converting C to i80386 Assembler, C++ to Delphi and vice versa). However now I don't think I'd like to do some similar job. It much easier to me to write something from the ground rather than reading the code written by another programmer.

So true. +1 for it :)