> At some point you need to say, "This code is a mess, and pretty much anything we do to it will be an improvement."
In software development it's often the case that the first claim is true, but the second isn't.
> Frankly I wouldn't trust fixes to the old version anyway, given its state.
It will be interesting to see if this get organized and properly funded, given this library's importance to international commerce.
> Frankly I wouldn't trust fixes to the old version anyway, given its state.
Clean slate! An admirable goal, and clearly the best solution. Let's see if this actually happens.
I spent a couple hours with the OpenSSL source last week, and agree that a major cleanup is necessary. This means
- Rip out unused stuff - Rip out stuff that obviously doesn't work - Make big cleanups
I've done this in the past with token-level tools to ensure that I wasn't breaking things.
OpenSSL desperately needed to have a bunch of garbage removed. It needs good tests, it needs to be slimmed down and made clean so that the code is readable and maintainable.
Frankly I wouldn't trust fixes to the old version anyway, given its state.