I'm building a big, very complex piece of open-source software, and it's killing me trying to make what I have as clean as it needs to be.What I want to know is: If there is an undetected flaw in my program and/or my code cleanliness (is that a word?), can that harm my reputation?Likewise, is it bad that I've reused code from an already open-source app but have rewritten it my way?Thanks.
Should my program be flawless at release
open source;source code;clean code;app
No. There is no such thing as a flawless program, so don't aim for that.What you should aim for in for a first release is good/thorough documentation, some automated tests, one or more places for people to tell you about any problems they have or features they'd like to see, and a clear/prominent description of what your program library is and is not supposed to accomplish. And it should actually work, obviously.Regarding reputation, I would expect people to care more about how you respond to bug reports/feature requests and how your program evolves rather than how pristine it might be at version 1.0. If you have at least the things I mentioned above, you'll be in a good position to respond well to all the input you'll inevitably get.Reusing code from another app is fine if the license allowed it and you follow all the license terms. I would also try to attribute it somewhere even the license doesn't require it; that's just more polite.