Carters Compass

"I know I'm on the right track when, by deleting something, I'm adding functionality." -- JohnCarter

I find it most entertaining when, to fix a bug in an existing system, I need do nothing but delete code. -- JeffGrigg

The "Gorillas" program that came with QBasic had a bug which meant that if you set the gravity really low, the bananas could pass through the buildings (and, annoyingly, the enemy gorilla) without stopping. It can be fixed by deleting some code.

On a program I had to modify involving a digitizer and operator which was frequently losing hours of work, I found that by deleting all the code and starting over, along with testing aimed at discovering malfunctions in the initial working code, that the code was shorter, more compact and in the final version, totally useful and without any more than a few seconds of data loss, with any sort of interruptions and even complete power loss and computer shutdown occurring. This was done by organizing the code to flow without branching and by saving data frequently.

The result was the creation of geography fitting to the task at hand. The computer: Harris, The language: Fortran77, the digitizer: 60 inch Summagraphics, and the era: 1985. -- DonaldNoyes