The best way to familiarize yourself with an inherited codebase

Question

Stacker Nobody asked about the most shocking thing new programmers find as they enter the field.

Very high on the list, is the impact of inheriting a codebase with which

Answer 1

Do try to understand the code by fixing bugs in it. Do correct or maintain documentation. Don't modify comments in the code itself, that risks introducing new bugs.

In our line of work, generally speaking we do no changes to production code without good reason. This includes cosmetic changes; even these can introduce bugs.

No matter how disgusting a section of code seems, don't be tempted to rewrite it unless you have a bugfix or other change to do. If you spot a bug (or possible bug) when reading the code trying to learn it, record the bug for later triage, but don't attempt to fix it.