Wonderful post Ovid - just added to my favs list. For someone who had the great misfortune a while back of inheriting a large, ill-maintained and astrociously coded website, I know what you mean and this post really highlights some of the main points that go into fixing it.

I also have to agree heartily with the replies, although I would like to add something. I find sometimes that it actually helps, with particularily insubordinate code, to take part of it out of the main file (say, a sub) and put it into another script that has major error-checking, lots of warnings and what not, and then test it from there. Sometimes this will yield a solution very quickly, and other times it has quickly allowed me to see what was wrong and what needed to be recoded.

Just thought I'd offer a quick idea...great job again!

r. j o s e p h
"Violence is a last resort of the incompetent" - Salvor Hardin, Foundation by Issac AsimovW