There seem to be enough threads on how to get a grip on a new rather larger than you're used to code base. I intend to ask Stack Overflow, how many of you deal with inheriting code bases for which the whole development environment needs to be recreated? I'm talking like, out of production dev tools fetched, parts of a project built with one tool and parts with another, a veritable "use the force, read the source!" mentality?
The biggest question here is not, how do you start wrapping your head around the code, but how many of you cant even compile in changes when you get your new codebase and must first hope and pray that somehow some library didn't get compiled in a different way, or some other nightmare? And how have you dealt with it?
I will be doing this for the 2nd time in a year very shortly, and I could use some success stories or insight or thoughts or feedback or whatever else is out there.