Always write code as if the next programmer to work on it will be a 600Kg gorilla with a bad attitude and who knows where you live!

Currently trying to modify a 1000 line function in a driver that has no comments (I am developing a large silver streak down my back 😆 )

Writing terse code that might be better in an obfuscated code contest can be counter productive in that not only is it harder for humans to read and debug, it can be harder for the compiler to analyse and generate compact code for it. Our rule are: write in the existing style; new code write in the in-house style. All code goes through linters and checkers to enforce this before being accepted in to the system.

therefore you should structure the solution to be as comprehensible as possible.

That is exactly what I am saying.

It’s worth noting that I have mostly worked in Enterprise Java where your job is to use APIs. If you’ve been writing FX engines (presuming that’s what you meant) then you’re clearly writing a lot more low level code than me.

And you would not want to mix those two approaches either. Nothing worse than someone’s home-made stuff when there are widely used APIs to do the same thing.

writing FX engines (presuming that’s what you meant)

no, FIX. Understand that you might not have heard of it, it’s not like it is a well established protocol or anything !

http://www.fixtradingcommunity.org/

In some industries I’m sure it is 🙂

Anyway, point still stands.