After talking to alot of programmers, most of them do not like working on another programmers code. This made me feel abit uneasy since am hiring programmers from freelance sites and there is no guarantee he will stick with me to continue upgrading the site. Just how tought is it to get another programer to work on your existing script (a complex one) would he charge alot of money for such service?
Yes that's pretty much true. In most languages there are usually lots of different ways to do the same thing and everyone has their own preferred way of doing any particular thing. Then throw in different coding styles and different skill levels and one programmer's masterpiece is another's nightmare that they may think needs a complete rewrite. If you find a good programmer that you can afford, you'll do well to hang on to him.
I've taken over a few jobs that were nightmares... For instance, the previous coder thought it would be a good idea to add absolutely no line breaks in the PHP code...That wasn't too fun.. I prefer to only work with my own code...
Isnt because each programmer wants to keep their work safe for themselves. It'd also take out alot of the popular belief that it would be stolen. I think each programmer has a unique way
Yes, being a programmer myself, I absolutely can't stand it when I have to go in and modify some of my coworker's code. Everyone has their own way of coding things and there is about 50 ways to do the same thing most of the time. I would probably charge you more to pick through something that has already been coded than if I coded the whole thing myself...
good question, I'd like to ask: Would guys take it upon yourself to change code? or would you ask the client to pay you to code whatever they are asking from scratch. I am only because I am going through a similar situation. I have a site that needs to be redone and I don't want to pay more money to do it from scratch.
the coder that I keep in touch with alot and give projects to, he charges me more if I have him pick up from another programmer
I do a lot of maintenance programming for a living. (Taking over someone else's code). Unless the code is exceptionally well written and documented (pretty rare) making changes to someone else's code is a lot of work. You first have to understand what your client wants changed You have to understand how the existing code works If the change request is big you have to know/hope that the changes you make won't break other things. On a custom script this is usually a big and therefore expensive job.
There will certainly be a charge for the amount of time to familiarise yourself with the other persons code - depending on how much has been done it can be cheaper to start from scratch than have someone take over. You also have to be careful with copyright, depending on the contract and which legal system applies to the contract you may not own the rights to the code even if you have paid someone to create it for you and so getting someone else to work on it and then use it could be a copyright breach.
Honestly, it mostly depends on how well the previous programmer commented and structured their code. A lot (not all but a good portion) of coders who were not formally trained in a college environment do not code with efficient structures and just piece code together to make it work. A good programmer will code in logical and easy to modify structures, and will comment any code that is not inherently clear.
second on this. If it's a complex one (meaning: unstructured, poor code) then it will simply require more time (or "much more time")... which means more money.
For big projects security would be an issue. If it is any type of commerce on the web I will only have 1 programmer or programming team complete the project depending on the time frame. I encrypt most of my php code too, just in case somewhere some gets leaked, I know some other programmers who encrypt also.
My advice would be to not get a coder to do part of the project then wait and get another to do the remainder. You should probably get a single coder and pay him a lump sum to do everything you want the site/script to do. If he doesn't do it, he doesn't get paid. And then it shouldn't be too difficult to get other coders, if needed, to do small addon's or fixes assuming you may find bugs later on down the road.
I agree. It will cost more to hire separate programmers in the long run. Most programmers don't comment anything and their standards are very, very low, if any. I've seen some horrible code in my days and it takes a lot of time just to understand most other programmers code... So you might put in time as an expense when hiring someone else. Freelancer sites are full of people looking to earn a quick buck by using other peoples code. Be very, very careful. Try spending a few extra bucks on a quality programmer...local is sometimes the best option. Maybe go to a local php Group Meeting and let people know of your Job offering? they do it all the time at ours ;-)
I've read what others have said and basically it's a pain in the a** to modify someone's code. I've been working on a project where I had to intergrate about 15 different php scripts into one big site. Well, this was a mess. Even high end expensive scripts - you wouldn't believe some code. I don't normally charge any higher hourly rate for this kind of work but I do take time to study the code so anyway you pay more. Usually, if it's a premade script (i.e. a forum) there are coders who are allready familiar with that code so you should probably pick them but with custom made scripts... well you can take about anyone. It's the worst situation when I come to a script which has been written by someone who just doesn't have enough experience and the architecture is bad. That's a problem to fix without rewriting from scratch.