This Old Code

I didn't notice any comment that warranted an apology, but I do agree 100% with your concern about the risks introduced by last-minute code changes.

In this case, that risk is mitigated by a few things:

1. Over 11,000 test cases for CodeRush, Refactor! Pro, and the DXCore. We run all of these regularly during the development cycle and just before we ship. We don't ship anything until all test cases are green.
2. The plug-in architecture decouples one plug-in from another, so adding a new feature in a new plug-in is relatively low risk change (compared with changing low-level functionality that other plug-ins depend upon).
3. Risk level is met with appropriate scrutinity and "settling down time". When adding code, we're continually assessing risk level. I tend to double-check and often triple-check everything I write, and I'll usually step through most of the new code when testing. Code changes are frequently reviewed, and we make heavy use of pair programming to ensure quality and when making high-risk changes. High-risk changes only happen on code that has extensive coverage and that only occurs at the start of the *next* dev cycle. This permits an extended "settling down time". The entire team dogfoods CodeRush and Refactor! Pro (so we can build CodeRush and Refactor! Pro faster), and the dev cycle is typically about three months. That gives the team plenty of time to assess the quality of those high-risk changes.

So, even though I appear on the surface to be setting an example of reckless programming in wild abandon, in reality everything is under control (amazing, eh? :-) ). The Step into Member feature exists all by itself in a plug-in, and I assure you, no DXCore code was harmed or changed in the production of this new feature.